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JEROME D. TRAVERS 



THE NEW GOLF 



BY 

P. A. VAILE "" 

Author of ''Modern Golf," "The Soul 
of Golf," etc. 

CONTAINING FORTY ILLUSTRATIONS 

FROM PHOTOGRAPHS AND 

MANY DIAGRAMS 



NEW EDITION REVISED AND ENLARGED 




NEW YORK 
E. P, DUTTON & COMPANY 

1917 

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Copyright, 1916 
By E. p. button & COMPANY 

Copyright, 1917 
By E. p. DUTTON & COMPANY / 



Printed in the United States of America. 

M 13 1917 ' 
©GI,A462991 ^ 



PEEFACE 

Thebe are always many people who say that 
golf cannot be learned from a book. Neither can 
arithmetic, unless one assiduously practises the 
actual work. Yet no intelligent person would try 
to argue that the arithmetic book is superfluous. 
The fact is that the American has in the past 
played most games by imitating other people. It 
is a fine way to learn, but it is not always the 
quickest, and it certainly is not the most scien- 
tific or intellectual. 

Golf in America is making amazing progress. 
Many of the greatest intellects of the nation get 
their recreation on the links. The youth of the 
country is playing the game in a manner that is not 
equalled by the youth of any other nation, either 
as regards quantity, quality or sex. The women 
of America are playing it. It is making playmates 
of parents and children, husbands and wives who 
otherwise would not be so close to one another. 
It is a mighty industry, a great factor in business 
and social life, and every day it is becoming more 
so. Unless one can play, or at least talk intelli- 



PREFACE 

gently about, golf, one has to miss about three 
quarters of the conversation in any country club — 
and many other places — in America. 

This may seem a poor way to look at a great 
game. It really is not so. There is more golf in 
the atmosphere than politics or religion. Nobody 
cares to be quite ignorant of the subject that is 
engrossing the attention of one 's friends and rela- 
tions. It is therefore becoming increasingly im- 
portant for every one to know at least enough 
about golf to avoid being bored to distraction. 

This is a very insidious method of adding to the 
ranks of the golfers. It is right that one should 
get this knowledge — this theoretical knowledge — 
first. It is so much pleasanter for him — and the 
other people — when he sets out to put it into prac- 
tise, as he undoubtedly will. 

In arriving at the new golf it was of course nec- 
essary to know ''Ye olde goffe." In comparing 
the new thought and the intellectual advance in the 
game with what has gone before it has been im- 
possible to avoid reference to the works of the 
great masters of golf, men whom every good 
golfer honors for their great skill in playing 
the game and for the admirable manner in 
which they all so worthily maintain their posi- 
tion in it in every way. All advance in any 
science is built upon the achievement or error of 



PREFACE 

the men who went before, and even the er- 
rors of the earnest student are frequently good 
for the man who comes after. I have been led to 
the truth by a famous man's error, the same error 
as I myself had made before him, but I did not see 
it until he made it. Then it was clear to me. 

So, it has been necessary for me to use the work 
of the famous men, who have gone before me in the 
history of golf, in building up The New Golf and 
the secure foundation for The New Thought in 
golf, which is of infinitely greater importance. 
Knowing golf thoroughly and thinking it keenly 
cannot make the game less interesting or beneficial, 
and that I am sure will be proved by a careful 
study of The New Golf. 

I must impress on my readers the fact that in 
nearly every case where a golf book has been pro- 
duced in England under the name of a famous pro- 
fessional it has been written by some golf journal- 
ist who is not himself entitled to speak with au- 
thority. In this manner much that is not even 
**olde goffe" has become associated with the 
names of the famous players, — ^much, indeed, to 
which they will not now subscribe. The trouble 
is, however, that it is still circulating with all the 
authority of their great names and will so con- 
tinue to circulate unless The New Thought in golf 
damages it severely — as I think it will. 



PREFACE 

Americans really are keen and analytical about 
their game. They desire always the shortest road 
to proficiency. I believe that in The New Golf I 
am showing the American golfer that road. If 
this work is not a primer to the beginner and a 
valuable friend to the champion, and this indeed is 
'*a far cry both ways," it will have failed of the 
purpose which inspired its production. 

P. A. V. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I The Right Wat to Learn Golf 1 

II Gripping and Soling the Club 6 

III Prevalent Misconceptions About the Golf 

Stroke 14 

IV Putting 32 

V The Mashie 67 

VI The Iron 83 

VII The Cleek 9.1 

VIII Driving 97 

IX The Niblick 142 

X The Master Stroke 147 

XI The Slice .164 

XII The Pull ........... 176 

XIII The Eyes 191 

XIV The Short Swing 198 

XV The Power of the Left 204 

XVI The Golf Club '223 

XVII The Golf Ball 232 

XVIII TiiE Flight of the Golf Ball . . . .258 

XIX The Mechanics of Golf 283 

Afterword 314 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PLATE FACING PAGE 

1 Jerome D. Travers. Finish of Drive Frontispiece 

2 The Vardon Overlapping Grip 4 

3 The Vaile Overlapping Grip 16 

4 Front and Rear Views of Vaile Grip 28 

5 Salient Points in Putting 40 

6 Salient Points in Putting ...*.... 52 

7 Errors in Putting 64 

8 Comparison of Putters 76 

9 Jerome D. Travers Putting, (a) Stance and Ad- 

dress, (b) Finish 88 

10 Jerome D. Travers. (a) A Short Approach, (b) 

Stance and Address with Mashie or Jigger . . . 100 

11 Edward Ray Playing a Chip Shot 112 

12 Edward Ray Playing an Approach 124 

13 Jerome D. Travers. (a) Top of Swing with Mashie. 

(b) Stance and Address with Cleek 136 

14 Jerome D. Travers. Top of Swing and Finish in 

Iron Play 148 

15 Jerome D. Travers Bunkered 160 

16 James Braid Playing out of a Bunker 172 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PLATE FACING PAGE 

17 Jerome D. Travers. Driving, Stance and Address, 

and Top of the Swing 184 

18 Jerome D. Travers. Top of the Drive .... 196 

19 Francis Ouimet. Top of Drive 208 

20 Eobert A. Gardner. Finish of Drive . . . . .220 

21 Charles Evans, Jr. Finish of Drive 232 

22 Harry Vardon. Finish of Drive ...... 244 

23 Francis Ouimet. Finish of Drive 256 

24 Harry Vardon. Finish of Drive 268 

DIAGRAMS 

1 Push Stroke with Cleek. 

2 Overhang at Impact. 

3 If the Push got Its Spin from the Earth. 

4 A Wind-cheater. 

5 How the Delusion Arose. 

6 Influence of Baekspin. 

7 Flight of the Wind-cheater. 

8 The Pull. 

9 Spin of the Pulled Ball. 

10 The Slice. 

11 Approximate Plane of Spin of Sliced Ball. 

12 First Contact in, Taylor's Stroke. 

13 Travel of Ball on Face of Mashie. 

14 The Ball on the Mashie. 

15 The Influence of Baekspin. 

16 How the Driver Takes Hold of the Ball. 

17 The Club's Grip in the Slice. 

18 The Club's Grip in the Pull. 

19 Pulled Ball on Face of Club. 

20 Position of Feet for the Pull. 

21 Position of Feet for the Slice. 

22 Three Stances. 

23 The Shallow-Faced Club. 



THE NEW GOLF 



THE NEW GOLF 

CHAPTEE I 

THE EIGHT WAY TO LEAEN GOLF 

If one employs a professional to teach one golf 
the first thing he does is to hand one a driver. 
Then he tells one a good deal about the mystery 
and di^cnlty of golf and proceeds to try to teach 
one the drive, the most difficult stroke in golf, 
first. 

I am calling the drive the most difficult stroke 
in golf. It is not so to everybody, but it is suffi- 
ciently so to give point to my illustration, for in 
the drive there is probably at least as much op- 
portunity for error as there is in any stroke in 
golf. 

I maintain that in a game which makes such a 
full and insistent demand for accuracy as does 
golf, the only correct method of instruction is to 
take the beginner by natural gradation from the 
easiest stroke to the most difficult. In all good 
tuition, in sport or science, this is the invariable 



2 THE NEW GOLF 

rule. For some inscrutable reason it is openly 
and ruthlessly violated and contemned by all pro- 
fessional golfers. The result is, not unnaturally, 
that an amazing number of people who pay much 
money to learn golf are not learning it. 

It would not be so bad if it stopped at this. 
Unfortunately it does not. Many of these poor 
people start golf late in life. This method, or 
lack of method, in teaching makes of many of them 
merely golf -cowards. One has heard of men and 
boys who are "gun-shy," who fear the noise and 
the recoil of the gun. 

Who has heard of the ''ball-shy" golfer? Yet 
there are many thousands of him and her, who 
have been converted into golf cowards because 
they were set a task quite beyond their powers at 
the beginning. They were made to feel that the 
ball was their master, their tyrant, instead of 
their faithful little friend and servitor. 

Some few escape being ball-shy, who are started 
late in life on wrong methods, but thousands suc- 
cumb. Now there can be little doubt that the 
proper way to start teaching any one golf is on the 
putting green. Putting is quite half the game of 
golf and it is the most important part of the game ; 
yet it is ridiculously and shamefully neglected. 

The right place from which to start any one who 
really desires to learn golf thoroughly is any- 



THE NEW GOLF 3 

where from six inclies to a foot from the hole. 
From this point one may back the pupil through 
his clubs until he arrives at the tee — and his 
driver. 

"When I first wrote this in 1909 it was, although 
most obviously sound, regarded as revolutionary 
teaching. Now, the best professionals start their 
pupils, if not on, at, the green. Any one who has 
patience and perseverance enough to start in this 
way, and to keep on at it for some time, will be 
astonished at the solidity it will give to the foun- 
dation of his game — his putting — and at the con- 
fidence it will breed in him when playing through 
the green and from the tee. 

There are good reasons for this. Perhaps the 
first is that this method of learning teaches one 
in a very natural and easy manner to keep one's 
eye on the ball. Starting within a foot of the hole 
gives one a stroke which one feels sure of being- 
able to play. It also is of such a length that both 
the hole and the ball are within one's focus. This 
means that one has no temptation to raise the head 
and lift the eye in order to follow the run of the 
ball to the hole. This is a matter of much greater 
importance than is generally understood. The be- 
ginner does not start with his ball cocked up on a 
little mound of sand. He has to play it as it lies 
on the green. He gradually becomes accustomed 



4 THE NEW GOLF 

to this and so it seems quite natural for him to do 
so when, by easy stages, he gets ofi the green and 
has to play his chip-shots. 

I know perfectly well that very few golfers ever 
learned in this manner. I certainly did not, but 
that does not alter the fact that there is a right 
way and a wrong way to do everything. I am 
giving the right way in golf, but it is not com- 
pulsory if any one cares to sacrifice the advantage 
of it and to learn in the usual way the most difficult 
strokes first. 

From a purely scientific point of view there can 
be no doubt of the advantages of the course sug- 
gested by me, and I am building up my book to a 
great extent on these lines ; but from the practical 
side of the question it will probably be found 
expedient to encourage any one who shows any 
ability to do so by letting him have a few hits at 
the ball with a driver. The insistent cry of the 
beginner to the professional is "Teach me to 
swing." The result unfortunately is that fre- 
quently they get the swing and nothing else. So 
those, who want to do so, may read the analysis 
of the drive and the master stroke after they have 
studied the chapter on putting. 

The player, who will learn as I suggest, will 
make the valuable — to elderly players the invalu- 
able — discovery that the drive is much more of an 





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THE NEW GOLF 5 

exaggerated put than is commonly understood, 
and this apparently extreme statement has special 
application, as will be seen later, to the master- 
shot in golf, the drive with back-spin. 

Too many beginners worry about their style. 
The player who thinks of style first at any game 
deserves all that comes to him. No man who 
cares anything about a game, certainly no man who 
is worthy to play golf, should worry about his 
style. His whole endeavor should be to produce 
his strokes in a manner that is mechanically per- 
fect. If he succeeds in doing this he may rest 
assured that he will have in his stroke so much 
of style or finish as it is possible for him to get. 
If he should desire style at the expense of efficiency 
I have no word for him. 



CHAPTER II 

GKIPPING AND SOLING THE CLUB 

There are quite a number of different grips that 
may be advantageously used for playing golf — by 
different people. I have very little doubt that of 
the grips commonly used that which is generally 
called "The Vardon grip" is the best. 

The Vardon grip was not introduced by Harry 
Vardon. It was known and used before Vardon 
took it up, but he undoubtedly set the fashion for 
it and it is the best of the known overlapping or 
interlocking grips. 

I may say at once that I do not believe in any 
of the interlocking grips although we have one 
or two cases of golfers who have made history by 
the use of some form of interlocking grip. I can- 
not see any possible advantage in an interlocking 
grip that cannot be obtained better by an over- 
lapping hold. 

The outstanding features of the Vardon grip 
are that the thumb of the left hand is buried be- 
tween the pahn of the right hand and the shaft 
of the club and the little finger of the right hand 



THE NEW GOLF 7 

rides on the forefinger of the left. This grip, with 
slight differences in the positions of the hands on 
the shaft, is used by Braid, Taylor, Vardon, Dun- 
can and many of the leading golfers. The great 
claim made for it is that it brings the wrists more 
closely together and so leads to a more harmonious 
action. 

There is very little doubt that this claim is well 
founded. It is not, however, so certain that the 
advantages of the grip are so great as is commonly 
supposed in England. In America the grip is not 
nearly so popular as it is in England where golfers 
are extremely prone to follow the lead of success. 
Some very fine English golfers have not adopted 
the overlapping grip and in America a great num- 
ber of the leading players still use the old two 
handed grip. 

In speaking against the Yardon overlapping 
grip one is confronted by a fairly stiff argument 
in the shape of at least sixteen open championships 
won with it. It sounds almost revolutionary to 
say it but I am inclined to think that this does not 
necessarily prove that the Vardon grip is the best 
for golf or even for the majority of golfers. On 
the contrary, I am inclined to think that for the 
majority of golfers it is a dangerous grip and one 
that is calculated to induce the player to ease his 
grip with his right hand during the swing, and 



8 THE NEW GOLF 

this is a particularly objectionable habit to culti- 
vate. 

If one must use an overlapping grip I am in- 
clined to think that the reverse overlap to that used 
by Vardon is safer and for at least ninety per 
cent, of golfers more efficacious than that in gen- 
eral use. In this case the forefinger of the left 
hand over-rides the little finger of the right, the 
left thumb as in the Vardon grip lying at the base 
of the right thumb between the shaft and the palm 
of the right hand. 

The Vardon grip, in my opinion, tends unduly 
to weaken the grip of the right hand while the 
suggested overlap gives the right hand its proper 
position on the club, does away with the great 
tendency to open up the right hand,(and exerts a 
most beneficial influence in checking one of the 
most prolific causes of inaccuracy in golf, namely, 
the deep-rooted tendency to overswing that seems 
to be inherent in most golf ers)*— or would-be golfers. 
This shortening of the swing is of much greater 
importance that is realized, and I shall have oc- 
casion later to deal with it fully. 

It is however impossible to dogmatize about 
the matter of grip. There is probably one grip 
that is best for most players. I think that the new 
grip suggested by me will, in the course of a few 
years, perhaps sooner, come into general use, but 



THE NEW GOLF 9 

even then, it will not suit every one. So it resolves 
itself into this for the individual. He must try 
the various grips and choose the one that suits 
him best, if he is going on his own judgment, as- 
sisted by the book, or he must (in reason, of 
course) follow the advice of his professional, but 
always I should advise a beginner, and indeed 
any player who is off his game, to try the new 
overlap, as I am convinced that it has advantages 
that the Vardon overlapping grip does not pos- 
sess. 

I do not want to enter into any wearisome argu- 
ment in favor of the new overlap. I may however 
direct the attention of my readers to the remark- 
able records of Messrs. John Ball and H. H. 
Hilton. The Vardon overlapping grip played no 
part in making their fame, therefore it is at least 
certain that the overlapping grip is not a neces- 
sity. Argumentative people may point to the 
records of Braid, Taylor and Vardon. The 
answer is that probably these men would have 
won with any of the grips used in golf. We may 
even go further and say that we cannot possibly 
say how much better they might play if they were 
to adopt the proposed method of overlapping in- 
stead of that used by them. 

Now there will be few to deny that the golf of 
Messrs. Ball and Hilton is right-handed golf. 



10 THE NEW GOLF 

Allowing this to be the case what argument can 
we find in changing grips for making so sudden and 
radical a change as to deprive the right hand 
of its place of honor on the shaft and for giving 
that to the left, for that is what we do in the 
Vardon overlap. We take away the full grip with 
the right and give that to the left. In the pro- 
posed overlap I proceed by the more natural stage 
and allow the right hand to take its proper place 
on the shaft without being interfered with in any 
way, for the insertion of one thumb at the base 
of the ball of the other thumb cannot be regarded 
as an interference ; indeed it is probably very use- 
ful in tending to prevent one getting too much of a 
palm hold. 

Grripping the club correctly is unquestionably of 
very great importance and it behooves the be- 
ginner to try most carefully and earnestly to get 
the grip that suits his hands and build best. It is, 
as I have at various times indicated, almost im- 
possible to dogmatize on this subject, but there is 
another matter of fundamental importance which 
should be taught just as soon as one knows how to 
hold a club, yet is most consistently neglected in 
nearly every book on golf and by at least nineteen 
of twenty professionals. I refer to the soling of 
the club. 

Many quite good players handicap themselves 



THE NEW GOLF ii 

by their faulty method of soling the club. It is 
not unusual to see golfers addressing the ball with 
the toe of the driver cocked up in the air and the 
heel resting on the ground. This is a mistake. 
At the address one should strive to place the club 
as nearly as may be in relation to the ball in the 
same position as one intends it to be when it re- 
turns to the ball in the downward swing. 

It must be remembered that the sole of the club 
is meant for the club to rest on. It is not neces- 
sary in addressing a ball that the club shall rest 
on its sole, but in ninety per cent, of golf strokes it 
is advisable that the sole should be allowed to 
perform its office. The loft of a club bears a 
definite relation to the sole. This has been settled 
by the club-maker. Therefore in addressing your 
ball let your club rest on its sole. This is a good 
general rule though it is not without many excep- 
tions to prove it. For instance, my most prized 
mashie has practically no sole, for it starts curv- 
ing upwards and backwards directly it leaves the 
lower edge of the face of the club. 

A player should not require the sole of his club 
by which to sole his club, but it is undeniably 
expedient in most cases, when addressing the ball, 
to lay the club so that it rests easily and naturally 
with the whole of the sole in contact with the turf. 

As one gains experience it is probable that one 



12 THE NEW GOLF 

will have a club or two, especially in the future, 
that does not give the fullest indication of how 
to sole it by the shape and breadth of its sole; 
also, of course, the soles of many clubs are now 
curved. The player will however be well advised, 
wherever possible, to sole his club in the manner 
indicated by the make of the club. I cannot make 
this too clear, for it is a matter of the greatest 
importance. Let me therefore give a very simple 
yet forcible illustration. 

One is addressing one's ball for a drive with 
an ordinary driver or brassy. Imagine that the 
shaft is sawn off at the socket. Take the club 
head and put it down on the turf behind the ball 
so that it rests fairly and flatly behind the ball, 
and so that a line taken from the face of the club 
through the ball to the hole would form with the 
front edge of the face of the club two right angles. 

The idea in one 's mind must be that the face of 
the club runs at right angles to the line to the hole 
at the moment of address and particularly at the 
moment of impact. This is always of vital im- 
portance especially in putting. 

Eemember that there must be no cocking up of 
the club in any way. It must rest truly and fairly 
on the sole. There are four ways in which people 
offend. They address with the club cocked up at 
the toe, which is very bad. Others address with 



THE NEW GOLF 13 

the club down at the toe. This is a rarer and a 
worse fault. 

A by no means uncommon fault is to address 
with the front of the sole a httle off the ground 
while others again are inclined to lift the back of 
the club and press down in front. All of these 
eccentricities should be avoided and the club al- 
lowed to rest firmly and lightly on the grass. 

Most professionals now sole the club in front of 
the ball when addressing for the put. It is as- 
tonishing how these fashions spring up and take 
hold. The idea is that one is able to get a better 
line from the face of the putter to the hole if one 's 
view is unobstructed than one can if the ball 
comes between one's putter and the hole. Great 
putting was done, before this method was intro- 
duced, by people who have not used it, much very 
bad putting has been done by champions who have 
used it, and much really good work has been done 
by players who habitually use it. 

This is a fair summing up of the case so far as 
regards this method of address. Most of the 
great players in England do it, but unless one can 
put better this way than in the old style it is in- 
advisable to worry about altering one's method. 
There are many details in connection with soling 
the club and putting that are of infinitely greater 
importance than this matter. 



CHAPTER III 

PEEVALENT MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE GOLF STKOKE 

There is so mucli misconception about the stroke 
in golf that it is expedient to dispose of as much 
of it as possible before dealing with the strokes 
in the usual course. 

It will be noticed that I say "the stroke in golf." 
We shall be told that there are many strokes in 
golf. Well, so there are, but it will trouble any 
one to get one that is not an exaggerated put or 
some part of a drive. Indeed there are not want- 
ing those who assert that a drive is merely a 
highly developed put. We need not follow this 
argument too far, although it may be said, right 
at the beginning, that for many people, particu- 
larly those who take up golf late in life, the nearer 
they can keep their drive to the put the better 
for them; and this has been proved to be very 
sound golf. 

It is of the utmost importance for any one who 
intends to learn golf, or for any one who has 
learned, or is learning it, and is not satisfied with 
the result, to understand that above everything, 
if one wishes to play a fairly good game, it is 

14 



THE NEW GOLF 15 

necessary to give nature a chance. This is pre- 
cisely what a vast number of people will not do at 
golf. Why they persist in this foolishness is the 
one great mystery of golf. 

If one were to take the ordinary man up to a 
daisy drooping its head in a field, hand him. a 
walking stick and say ''Let me see you cut its head 
off" the chances are that he would unconsciously 
play a perfectly good right handed golf stroke. 
With many it would no doubt be a trifle short as 
the suggested operation would not need much 
strength, but it would be a natural hit, and that is 
what the golf stroke, to be successful, must be. 

We must now try to disencumber our minds of 
quite a number of strange ideas which are very 
prevalent amongst golfers and golf writers. It 
is amazing what a great number of things it is 
expedient to forget when once one gets opposite 
the ball. As a matter of fact there is just one 
thing to keep firmly in mind and one only and that 
is to hit it. If the result is unsatisfactory one 
may then hold the post-mortem. 

"Slow back." 

Of all the parrot cries of the links ''Slow back" 
is perhaps the most insistent and also one of the 
most unnecessary. When once one has got one's 
swing under control, to insist on one's going back 



i6 THE NEW GOLF 

slowly, and to think of doing it, is merely adding 
another difficulty to the swing. 

It is unnecessary to go back more slowly than 
just enough to ensure that there is no conflict of 
forces at the top of the swing when the upward 
swing ceases and the downward swing begins. 

In a natural swing it is quite unlikely that there 
will be any conflict for a peculiar reason that has 
not, so far as I am aware, ever been stated in a 
golf book or an article on golf. The downward 
swing really starts before the upward swing is 
finished. 

This is a paradoxical statement but it is quite 
sound as any one who is sufficiently interested can 
prove by a close study of motion pictures. The 
body leads the hands and arm in the return stroke. 
It starts to twist back towards the ball before the 
club has dropped to the lowest point over the 
player's left shoulder. I believe I am correct in 
saying that this is the first time this has ever been 
brought out. 

It will thus be seen that even in the quickest 
of drives, unless the action is quite stiff and un- 
natural, there is not, as is usually supposed, a 
moment at the top of the swing when the upward 
swing gives place suddenly to the downward. As 
a matter of fact, the one merges in the other in 
such a remarkable manner that it would be im- 




THE NEW OVERLAPPING 0F», VAILE GRIP 



THE NEW GOLF 17 

possible to say where or when the downward swing 
begins. Any student of golf who thinks that he 
can do this will find his time well spent with 
action photographs of the famous golfers of the 
world at the top of their swing. 

There can be no doubt that the top of the swing 
is a critical position. If one arrives at the cor- 
rect position there one has a reasonably good 
chance of returning correctly to the ball. It will 
therefore be seen that one must in swinging back 
be careful not to do so with undue speed for in 
that case there would be a chance of introducing 
an element of unsteadiness into the swing at a 
point where it is especially undesirable. 

There is an excellent reason against ''Slow 
back" which one does not very often hear ad- 
vanced. It is impossible to preserve anything like 
rhythm in the swing if one consciously tries to 
make one half of it much slower than the other. 
Anything of this nature should be by sub-con- 
scious effort, otherwise the due relation of the up- 
ward and downward swing is lost. This ancient 
*' slow-back" maxim is perhaps the first thing to 
forget in making the golf stroke. 

Swinging back. 

A very misleading idea of the beginning of the 
golf stroke is generally given by books and in- 



i8 THE NEW GOLF 

stmctors. The pupil is told to swing the club 
back. In the address the club is practically at 
the bottom of its arc. It cannot swing upward 
without power being found for it. As a matter 
of fact, the club is picked up off the ground by the 
hands and wrists and carried naturally back by 
them and the arms even as the walking stick was 
in the daisy cutting experiment. 

Any attempt to swing the club back will very 
likely result in the hands getting away backward 
before the head of the club, which is a bad fault. 
In the swing of most of the old St. Andrews 
golfers the first thing in the swing back was the 
press forward. 

This is another very sound paradox. Directly 
the player starts to hit the ball he pushes his hands 
forward an inch or two which turns the face of his 
club over a little toward the ball. I have never 
heard of or seen any explanation of this habit, 
but there can be no doubt that it gives one a nice 
clean pick up of the club and it certainly tends 
to prevent the wrists hurrying away before the 
head of the club. 

"As you go up so you come down." 

This is one of the most revered of golf's hoary 
old traditions, most of which are extremely un- 
sound, as indeed is this. One has undoubtedly 



THE NEW GOLF 19 

a great tendency to come back to the ball by the 
same route as that which one uses to get to the 
top of the swing. It will, however, be apparent 
that if one goes back, as one is instructed to, well 
in a line with the ball for some inches and fairly, 
or perhaps I should say comparatively, slowly, 
and then returns at top-speed to the ball, as one 
must in order to drive well, one will return by 
the most direct route possible, which route one 
certainly did not take on the upward swing. This 
is another of those incorrect and unnecessary 
''axioms" that may with much advantage be for- 
gotten. 

There is one good point in this unsound 
"axiom." It may perhaps make the golfer strive 
both in the swing back and the downward swing 
to keep his club head travelling for as long a time 
as possible, or rather for as great a distance as 
convenient, both in the upward and downward 
swings, in the line to the hole produced through 
the ball. This is of importance. 

Distribution of weight. 

Practically all books and all professional golfers 
teach the distribution of weight in the golf swing 
incorrectly. This is a very broad and sweeping 
statement but it is a fact. The distribution of 
weight particularly in the drive is of vital impor- 



20 THE NEW GOLF 

tance. All the greatest golfers say that at the top 
of the swing the weight must be on the right leg. 
This is quite wrong, and if one follows their in- 
structions, it is a physical impossibility. 

What one must try for is to have the weight 
absolutely evenly distributed between the legs at 
the top of the swing. If one tries for this the 
major portion of the weight will go where it ought 
to be, namely, onto the left leg and not onto the 
right. 

The great golfers tell us that at the top of the 
swing all the weight goes onto the right leg. This 
is very bad gplf. Since I exposed the fallacy of 
this statement some of them now go to the other 
extreme and say that it must all be borne on the 
left foot. This is probably a worse error. The 
truth lies between these extremes. Try for equal 
distribution and one will get a slight excess on the 
left foot, which is as it should be. 

This matter is however of so much importance 
that we must, in dealing with the drive, give it 
further attention. 

The golf stroke a sweep and not a hit. 

Probably the most remarkable misconception 
on the part of the most famous golfers and au- 
thors is the wonderful idea that the golf drive is 
a sweep and not a hit. 



THE NEW GOLF 21 

I may mention incidentally that one of the most 
eminent scientists in England measured the dura- 
tion of the drive in golf and found it to be one ten- 
thousandth of a second. This, I may mention 
parenthetically, is truly a gentle sweep ! 

This idea of sweeping the ball off the tee has 
been encouraged to an amazing extent by all the 
leading professionals and writers, even by J. H. 
Taylor, whose terrific right forearm punch is so 
famous. 

James Braid also encourages the idea. In 
Chapter VIII of How to play Golf he says: "The 
chief thing to bear in mind is that there must be, 
in the case of play with the driver and the brassie, 
no attempt to hit the ball, which must be simply 
swept from the tee and carried forward in the 
even and rapid swing of the club. The drive in 
golf differs from almost every other stroke in 
every game in which the propulsion of a ball is 
the object. In the ordinary sense of the word, 
implying a sudden and sharp impact, it is not a 
'hit' when it is properly done." 

This really is a very remarkable statement. If 
one ten-thousandth of a second is not a sufficiently 
''sudden and sharp impact" to warrant the golf 
stroke being called a hit I should like to know 
what speed is demanded before we go from the 
realm of the sweep into that of the hit. 



22 THE NEW GOLF 

As a matter of simple fact and plain common 
sense the stroke in golf, except possibly in the put, 
is a hit and not a sweep. Even in the properly 
played put it is open to argument whether or not 
it is technically a hit. With many, who are usual- 
ly unreliable putters, it undoubtedly is a hit, but 
that matter we must consider more fully in an- 
other place. 

This strangely persistent delusion about the 
golf stroke being a sweep has ruined the game 
of many thousands of players. I do not know of 
any stroke in the whole realm of athletics wherein, 
at the moment of impact, the striking imple- 
ment is traveling so fast as the golf club does 
at that time, yet I never heard of this very silly 
claim being set up in tennis, cricket, polo, or in- 
deed, in any other game. I am glad to say that 
the development of modern thought is tending to 
restrain these flights of imagination and that the 
player is getting every day a greater chance to 
be himself, to play the game as every game that 
is worthy of the name should be played — naturally 
and unaffectedly. 

Regulation of stroke during impact. 

The player must forget everything that he has 
ever read or been told as to what he can do to 
the ball while it is on the club, that is, during 



THE NEW GOLF 23 

adhesion. The club and the ball are in actual 
contact and travel for a very short distance to- 
gether. This is technically called adhesion. This 
period is so much less than what we understand 
by the word instantaneous that it is quite useless 
to try to convey to my readers any idea of its 
duration. It has been computed — as I have said — 
by one of our most capable physicists at one ten- 
thousandth of a second. 

It will be quite apparent then that it is utterly 
useless for a human being to think that he can 
time his stroke in such a manner that any special 
thing he does in that period can have any effect 
on the ball. 

We are told by quite experienced players, like 
Mr. W. J. Travis for example: ''The science of 
the stroke consists in hitting very sharply, and 
turning the wrists upward immediately after the 
ball is struck. ' ' 

Now the truth is that whatever one does to the 
golf ball during impact is merely an incident in the 
predetermined course or arc of the club head. 
The stroke is played at such a great pace that it 
is impossible to do anything during impact that 
is not in the swing of the club both before and 
after impact. James Braid emphasizes this. Let 
us see what he says : ''While it is of course in the 
highest degree necessary that the ball should be 



24 THE NEW GOLF 

taken in exactly the right place on the club and in 
the right manner, this will have to be done by the 
proper regulation of all the other parts of the 
swing and any effort to direct the club on to it 
in a particular manner just as the ball is being 
reached, cannot be attended by success." 

This strange fallacy was very prevalent in Eng- 
land until I demonstrated its falseness. There 
were not wanting serious students of the game 
who asserted that they actually saw Vardon pro- 
ducing his pulled drive by turning his wrists over 
at the moment of impact. It was years before 
they saw the futility of the action, if it had been 
used, and the falseness of the assumption that it 
was used. 

It is however so important that the student 
should get rid of any lingering notion of this kind 
that I quote James Braid again. He says: ''If 
the ball is taken by the toe or heel of the club, or 
is topped, or if the club gets too much under it, the 
remedy for these faults is not to be found in a 
more deliberate directing of the club on to the 
ball just as the two are about to come into con- 
tact, but in the better and more exact regulation 
of the swing the whole way through up to this 
point. ' ' 

He continues: *'The object of these remarks is 
merely to emphasize again, in the best place, that 



THE NEW GOLF 25 

the dispatching of the ball from the tee by the 
driver, in the downward swing, is merely an in- 
cident of the whole business. ' ' 

I repeat these important words "merely an in- 
cident of the whole business. ' ' I have in various 
places emphasized this matter as much as possible. 
It is another of the many fallacies of golf that 
must be absolutely forgotten by the learner or the 
golfer. Any attempt to introduce it into practi- 
cal golf must end in trouble. 

Importance of the follow-through. 

The player, especially the beginner, must get 
rid of the idea of the importance of the follow- 
through in golf. A totally disproportionate place 
is given to this part of the stroke in the minds of 
most people. The follow- through, by which we 
mean the proper completion of the stroke after 
contact with the ball has ceased, is in itself of no 
practical importance. 

Let me illustrate this clearly. A man may have 
played a magnificent drive both as regards length 
and direction and his follow-through may have 
been perfect. Supposing now for the sake of 
argument that a stray bullet had caught the head 
of his club, at say six inches after the ball had left 
it and had smashed it to pieces, the result of his 
stroke would have been just as good. The im- 



26 THE NEW GOLF 

portance of a good follow-througli is that it is an 
indication that the first part of the stroke was well 
played. The pace of the drive at golf is so great, 
that, provided one plays the first part of it up to 
the impact correctly, it is almost impossible to 
have a bad follow-through. 

Players may be excused for thinking that the 
follow-through has an influence on the flight of the 
ball, although obviously nothing that the club does 
after impact can affect the carry, for James Braid 
himself subscribes to this delusion. He says: 
''The success of the drive is not only made by 
what has gone before, but it is also due largely to 
the course taken by the club after the ball has been 
hit." 

I can remember playing a very good drive 
across a small river and about two hundred yards 
up a hill on the other side. The tee was within 
a few yards of the river. The force of my drive 
smashed my club head off at the splice and carried 
it away into the river, but I had never played a 
better shot at this hole, nor did I ever do so after- 
wards. If I had ever suffered from the delusion 
about the follow-through affecting the stroke this 
would have cured me. Every golfer who has 
played a little has experienced, or seen, or heard 
of, similar incidents to that which I have told. 
Its importance lies in the fact that one can use 



THE NEW GOLF 27 

it to expel the follow-through hogey, which is 
dangerous, for it takes the sufferer's mind for- 
ward to a part of the stroke that, comparatively 
speaking, is unimportant and removes it from the 
portion that is all-important. 

Foot-work. 

Good foot-work is important in golf, but a vast 
number of people have very little idea of what 
good foot-work means. Most of them think good 
foot-work means much foot-work. It would im- 
prove the game of many if they would reduce 
their foot-work to a minimum and make a vow 
never to get onto their toes ; nay more, in the case 
of many elderly players, particularly those who 
have started late in life, if they swore never to 
raise their heels, and kept their vow, they would be 
saved much swearing of another kind. 

Correct foot-work is of the first importance in 
the rhythm of a perfect stroke. It is generally 
taught wrongly from the start. One is told that 
the left heel comes away from the ground when 
the arms have gone so far back that they seem to 
drag the left heel up. This is bad teaching. The 
left heel, in a drive of perfect rhythm, leaves the 
ground almost at the same instant as the club 
head leaves the ball, certainly at the most a frac- 
tion of a second later. It is very bad form to 



28 THE NEW GOLF 

wait until one feels the demand of the arms be- 
fore one raises the heel. 

The exact apportionment of the weight to the 
feet and the best method to be employed will be 
dealt with in detail in the chapter on the drive. 
In the meantime, however, it may be said that the 
methods there set out are for those who find them- 
selves physically able to use them without undue 
fatigue. In the perfect foot-work of a Vardon, 
for instance, there is an amount of ankle and in- 
step work that would be very fatiguing for an 
elderly and heavy man. This should be avoided 
as much as possible by any one answering the 
description. It would hardly be exaggeration to 
say that there is excessive foot-work in golf, 
especially on the part of those who make a fetich 
of the full swing. 

The question of foot-work may be fined down to 
a very small point. Our feet are of course the 
base — some would say bases, or basis — of our 
drive. In a stroke, which calls for such mechani- 
cal precision as does the drive in golf, we must 
endeavor to have our base as firm and as constant 
as possible. 

It behooves every golfer, therefore, be he young 
or old, once he has taken his stance, to see that 
until he has hit the ball, he does not indulge in 
any heel-twisting. That is a new term, which 




Front View 




Kear View 
THE VAILE GRIP 



THE NEW GOLF 29 

means that if you move your heels it must be 
merely up and down, until after the ball is hit. 
Many players raise the left heel and screw round 
on the point of the toe so that the left heel is 
presented to the hole. Let one try to finish one's 
drive in this position. One speedily finds that it 
is impracticable without moving one's heel back 
into position. This means that if, at the top of 
the swing, one assumes this position, one must, 
during the downward swing be shifting round on 
one 's left foot. This is a bad habit, which must be 
avoided, for such a performance during the down- 
ward swing cannot possibly make for accuracy. 
How it may be avoided will be shown in the chap- 
ter on the drive. 

The power af the left hand and arm. 

In attacking the idea that the left arm is the 
dominant factor in the stroke at golf one is assail- 
ing a tradition as old, almost, and as carefully 
nourished as golf itself. The bare idea of such 
heresy set the golfing world of England in a 
blaze, but by the time the flames had died away, 
the insolent little idol was badly damaged. 

I do not think that this fetich ever had quite the 
hold in America that it had in England and Scot- 
land. This probably is explained by the fact that 
the American is not so prone to ''go blind" on 



30 THE NEW GOLF 

what some celebrity says. He has a way of ask- 
ing for reason. To use Ms expressive phrase he 
is *'from Missouri," and he wants to be shown. 
The disciples of the left hand and arm have a hard 
time when it is put squarely up to them like this, 
for as a matter of fact and practical golf, it is al- 
most impossible to produce any satisfactory evi- 
dence in favor of this ancient claim. 

Notwithstanding this, nearly all the great 
golfers, including Braid, Taylor and Vardon, 
either expressly or by implication, support the 
idea. The player, particularly the beginner, must 
forget this notion and allow himself to play his 
stroke naturally and without any idea of either 
hand dominating the other. One of them almost 
certainly will, but which one that is may quite 
well be left to Mother Nature. 

The wrists. 

More trouble than enough is caused by players 
being told how to get their wrists into their drive. 
They are given a totally erroneous idea of the 
function of the wrists. This is another of the 
many fallacies of golf that must go into the scrap- 
heap. 

There is in golf no such thing as a pure wrist 
stroke. Even the put does not come within this 
category. There is no stroke in golf that may 



THE NEW GOLF 31 

correctly be called a pure wrist stroke, except per- 
haps a six-inch put. 

It is important that the student should have a 
good general idea of these common delusions and 
the truth before he settles down to try to under- 
stand golf. I have, for that reason, where neces- 
sary, dealt briefly and concisely with most of the 
popular misconceptions about the game. I shall 
hereafter in various chapters have occasion to 
refer more specifically to these points as their 
importance warrants. 



CHAPTEE IV 

PUTTING 

Putting is the foundation of the game of golf. 
It is extremely simple and easy to learn. I could 
take an old lady, who could not by any possibility 
ever make even a fair golfer, and convert her into 
a good putter, yet there seems to be a general 
conspiracy on the part of the most eminent golfers 
to make out that one cannot be really good on the 
green unless one was born with a special putter 
in one's hand. 

This, as I hope to show, is pure moonshine. 
Putting is probably the simplest operation in the 
simplest game that is played, for golf is a simple 
game. The demand of golf is not for excessive 
brains. It is for extreme mechanical accuracy, 
accompanied preferably by a considerable amount 
of what I have heard called ** Saxon phlegm"; 
but, I have no doubt that, provided the accuracy 
is there, the American variety of the other quali- 
fication will be found sufficient for all purposes. 

Putting is not practised as it should be. If one 
would only realize it the put is beyond all ques- 

32 



THE NEW GOLF 33 

tion the master stroke in the game. By master 
stroke I mean here, not the stroke calling for the 
greatest skill in execution, but the most important 
stroke. 

I must give an illustration of this that I have 
given again and again, but it is so striking that I 
am always prepared to risk some one telling me 
that it is not entirely fresh. We may take 72 as a 
good score for any course. If we allow two puts 
per green we see that exactly half the strokes are 
played by the putter, leaving the other half to be 
distributed amongst the other clubs in the bag. 
As a matter of fact, more than half the strokes in 
a first class tournament are played on and in the 
immediate vicinity of the green. Players would 
do well to get this idea firmly into their minds. 
It might make them give the short game generally 
some portion of the time they lavish on the drive. 
Not that the drive is unworthy of all the time one 
can spare for it, but there is such a thing as pro- 
portion, and excessive devotion to the drive must 
mean a badly balanced game. Moreover it should 
always be remembered that the most awkward 
man to defeat is the one who knows his mashie and 
his putter. 

The ideal action for a put is that of the pen- 
dulum of a clock, presuming of course that the line 
to the hole is parallel to the face of the clock. It 



34 THE NEW GOLF 

is impossible to give any better notion of the ideal 
put than this. 

In practical golf one does not often see it, for a 
variety of reasons which need not be enumerated 
here. 

The first point of importance that the pendulum 
teaches us is that it has one bearing on which it 
swings. Our put will swing in the best possible 
way if we give it one bearing. To do this, or to 
get as near to it as is practicable without using 
one hand, means using one of the overlapping 
grips. I think it is beyond question that one of 
these grips, probably the one which allows the 
left forefinger to overlap the right little finger, is 
the best. 

Either this or the Vardon overlapping grip 
will be found the best for putting. Those who 
are unaccustomed to them find them a little 
peculiar at first, but when one has felt the smooth 
flowing action of putting with the hands brought 
together in this manner, one is not very likely to 
return to the old two-handed method. 

There is probably more variety in style in put- 
ting than there is in any other branch of the game. 
This to a very great extent arises from the fact 
that there is much ignorance of the mechanics of 
putting. For instance there is for each player one 
best distance at which to stand from the ball. 



THE NEW GOLF 35 

Many players quite ignore this. One should ad- 
dress one's put so that a plumb-line from the 
bridge of one's nose would hang in a line through 
the center of the ball. This it seems to me is the 
cardinal rule. If one does this the lines from the 
eye to the ball, from the eye to the hole and from 
the ball to the hole are all in the one vertical plane. 

If one addresses the ball too far in or too far 
out it means that one has three different lines to 
look down ; with a ball too far in there is one Hue 
from the eye inwards at the ball, another inwards 
from the eye and at a different slant to the hole 
and then the line of run to the hole which really 
does not ''connect" or ''run into" one's eye at 
all, so that one is really putting over a line other 
than that along which one is looking. 

There are so many putters that I hesitate to say 
anything about any particular putter. This I 
may say however and that is, avoid like a pesti- 
lence the shallow-faced putter. They are a de- 
lusion and a snare for about ninety-five per cent. 
of golfers and probably half a delusion for quite 
eighty per cent, of the remainder. They are a 
most dangerous and unreliable club, as the lesson 
of Braid and Vardon's putting will show, although 
Braid, so far as I know, never used the very shal- 
low face. 

The first time I saw Braid putting was at Wal- 



36 THE NEW GOLF 

ton-on-Heath in England. He was trying a Vaile 
putter for me as I wanted his opinion of it. To 
my surprise he came down on the ball from the 
back and finished on the turf an inch or two in 
front of where it had been. 

In those days I was little known in the golf 
world and Braid had already several open cham- 
pionships to his credit. Without a moment's 
hesitation I said, ''Do you always put l^ike that?" 

''Yes," replied Braid in his slow methodical 
style, "and it's the best way too." 

By this time I had remembered those champion- 
ships so I said no more, but I thought a good deal. 
Braid at that time was considered one of the 
most unreliable putters amongst the professional 
players. I was certain that his method of putting 
was bad, but I just "bottled it up" and kept my 
opinion for future use. 

The next time I saw Braid putting was a year or 
so afterward in a match at Mid Surrey. I came 
on the match suddenly, just as Braid came onto 
the green. I had left another game in which I 
had no further interest. Braid's ball was about 
twenty feet from the hole. He studied the lie 
with his usual thoroughness, then settled himself 
down to his ball and to my surprise ran it down 
with a beautiful easy pendulum-like swing, play- 
ing the only proper stroke for a put. 



THE NEW GOLF 37 

I am of course speaking generally now. There 
are special puts that require certain treatment 
peculiar to themselves, one in fifty perhaps. For 
all general use there is one put, the king-put, the 
put that rolls the ball up to the hole in just the 
same way as if one rolled it out of one's hand, 
without spin or cut or anything except an honest 
roll. 

That is the difference between James Braid's 
old style of putting, when he was very bad, and 
his present, when he is very good. When he was 
using his old bad method he was wont to say, and 
write, that putters were bom and not made. Now 
he uses himself as an illustration that a very bad 
putter who is using bad methods may, by discard- 
ing those methods, become a very good putter. 

Vardon's case is possibly more interesting than 
Braid's. Many years ago there was not much 
to find fault with in Vardon's putting and he won 
several open championships. Then his putting 
went all to pieces and let him down again and 
again. People wrote long articles about it and 
showed how it was due to illness, and analyzed 
the psychology of it, and generally did all those 
funny things that journalists do to or about peo- 
ple who are much in the public eye. 

I happened to see Vardon playing in a four- 
some at Baltusrol. His putting was sinful. I 



38 THE NEW GOLF 

had heard how of late years in England he had 
been missing puts of eighteen inches and two feet, 
and in America according to the papers he was 
not much better. Here truly was a mystery. 

After what I saw at Baltusrol I had no doubt 
whatever as to what was wrong with Vardon's 
putting. He was using a very shallow-faced put- 
ter and in addition to that was hitting or stabbing 
his puts as Braid did in the old, bad days when 
he never knew what was going to happen on a 
green. 

Vardon's putter was so shallow in the face 
that he was actually able sometimes to hit the ball 
beneath the centre of its height, particularly when 
it happened to be perched up a bit. This meant 
that often he played his put with the top edge of 
the face of the club ; in effect, a knife-edge on the 
pimples of the golf ball ! Truly an ideal form of 
putter and putting! Time and again I saw his 
ball start for the hole with a little crooked jump 
which was all he had any right to expect. 

I saw him miss the simplest of puts so close to 
the hole that he could have blown them in. His 
putter had got him down. People spoke with awe 
of the affection of his wrist. That was a second- 
ary symptom. The root of the disorder was in 
his mind. He could not understand why his put- 
ter would not work for him. It was worse the 



THE NEW GOLF 39 

nearer he got to the hole, for there the stroke 
had to be more delicate and this gave the uneven- 
ness of the pimples a good chance to play up with 
the edge of the putter. The further he was from 
the hole, and the harder he could hit, the better 
proportionately was his putting, for then the 
strength of the stroke kept the ball to its direc- 
tion, but, near the hole, it was really pitiful to see 
a great player like him missing things a six-year- 
old boy would have made certain of, whereas one 
could see that Vardon had done the other thing. 

I felt so sorry to see it that I immediately 
wrote an article, ''Why Vardon Puts Badly," set- 
ting out what I have stated above, and saying that 
when Vardon came to realize the truth of what I 
said and gave up his shallow-faced putter, stopped 
stabbing his puts, and followed through properly, 
he would become, like James Braid, a great put- 
ter. This was published in The Golf Magazine, 
of New York. 

I saw Mr. Ouimet's interesting account of how 
Vardon won his last open championship. He said 
he used an old-fashioned upright faced metal put- 
ter, and rusty at that, and that he had quite given 
up stabbing. Mr. Ouimet said that it was his 
splendid work on the greens that gave him his 
sixth open championship! 

This is a wonderful lesson in putting, especially 



40 THE NEW GOLF 

for those who are fond of hitting their puts. I 
have never known a consistently good putter who 
hit or tapped his puts. The trouble is that with 
this hitting method of putting one has to rely too 
much on what, for want of a better term, I call 
muscular memory. In the other method, where 
one swings gently and easily onto the ball with a 
good follow-through, one can regulate the length 
of one's put with considerable accuracy by the 
length of one's swing back. Moreover the start 
of a put is always truer with the swinging put 
than with the stabbed put. The latter has a great 
tendency to jump the first few inches as it starts 
on its way to the hole. This tendency does not 
exist in the other put which is superior in every 
way to the put that is hit. 

A putter should not have much loft. Some peo- 
ple think that it should have none. Personally I 
think that a putter should have just so much loft 
as will enable one barely to see the face of the club 
when the ball is addressed. The objection to loft 
in a putter is along the same lines as the objec- 
tion to the stabbed put. The tendency in putting 
with a lofted club is to put backspin on the ball 
and to start it with a jump. Neither of these 
things is desirable in putting. A putter would 
be better without any loft if the ball would start 
as freely as it does off a club with a little loft. 




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02 « 03 

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CO 

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THE NEW GOLF 41 

The fact is nearly all players hit a slightly up- 
ward blow in putting. It is probably very slight 
but the tendency is there nevertheless. A per- 
fectly vertical face would not give quite such a 
good start to the ball as does the slight loft rec- 
ommended. The reason for this is that the club 
grips the ball and the grass also has a hold on it. 
These holds endure until something slips. Nat- 
urally it is the ball that slips on the face of the 
club. Then it starts to roll. With a lofted club 
of the kind indicated the ball is started towards 
the hole without any conflict such as takes place 
when a club with a vertical face is used. ■ 

I have given the reformation of Braid and Var- 
don as a useful lesson in putting. These anec- 
dotes should be enough to prevent anyone 's trying 
to put with drag, or backspin, which was practi- 
cally what the old method of Braid and Vardon 
meant. ( Drag has its uses in billiards and mis- 
guided persons have repeatedly tried to apply the 
principles of billiards to strokes on the putting 
green ; and in various articles have endeavored to 
show an analogy which does not exist. ^ Grolf is golf 
and billiards is billiards. If a player tries to 
teach one putting by the principles of billiards it is 
to be feared that he is not a very practical guide to 
follow. 

The conditions that exist on a billiard table and 



42 THE NEW GOLF 

on a putting green are totally dissimilar, as also is 
the nature of the strokes. I am aware that this 
seems to be almost a work of supererogation that 
I am performing, but it is amazing to find quite a 
number of people spoiling their putting by trying 
to put drag on the ball because they know that 
drag is used at billiards. 

Drag is always dangerous on a putting green. 
I have already given various reasons for that. It 
is quite foolish even to think of using it in a long 
put, for the very good reason that a golf ball will 
not carry drag on a green for more than about a 
yard. The comparative lightness of the ball and 
the excessive roughness of the green and the ball 
as compared with the smoothness of the billiard 
ball and table, and also the fact that in billiards 
the blow is concentrated at a point well below the 
center of the ball's mass, go to show the futility 
of comparisons of this nature. 

There is one case in which drag may be useful. 
That is in short puts of not more than three feet 
or so. In such a put the ball may hold its drag 
against the friction of the green until it gets to 
the hole. If it does so it has a greater chance of 
'* working in" than the topped put, which often 
*'rims" or "lips" the hole and runs out again. 
But even here the chances are that the plain put 
is the safest and the best. Any dragging, stab- 



THE NEW GOLF 43 

bing or topping of puts is dangerous. All cutting, 
pulling or slicing of puts is to be avoided, where 
possible, and it is possible in about ninety-seven 
per cent, of strokes on the green. There is one 
put that is the king put, the plainest of them all. 
One who can use this properly can let any one else 
have all the others with an easy mind. 

Eather than waste time trying to learn how to 
put with drag one should go to the other extreme 
and try to put with top, not that this is necessary, 
but there can be no doubt that a very few good 
putters do use it to advantage. Most of them get 
it by hitting the ball as the club is coming up, that 
is to say, the ball is not hit until after the club 
has got to the lowest point in the swing. A ball 
hit thus has more run than a plainly hit put, but 
although such a stroke is superior to a put with 
drag, I cannot bring myself to recommend it, for 
I do not consider it necessary. Many people think 
that to get top in a put the ball must be hit above 
the center. This of course is not so. It might 
indeed be got by hitting the ball slightly below the 
center, as is often done in obtaining top spin in 
tennis. The difference, of course, between the put 
so hit and the tennis ball is that most of what goes 
into spin in tennis simply goes into extra run 
when the ball is on the green. Some writers refer 
to putting top ''spin" on a put. Needless almost 



44 THE NEW GOLF 

to say this is not practicable for the reasons al- 
ready indicated. 

I have already spoken of the false teaching of 
the most famous professionals and the leading 
writers on golf. In no case however is their 
teaching so pernicious as in the matter of putting. 
They, practically with one accord, declare that put- 
ting cannot be taught, that one must be born with 
the art or one can never get the secret, and then 
leave the unfortunate learner or golfer to despair. 
This is simply wonderful. We have seen that put- 
ting is at least half the game of golf. I am going 
to put before you the statement of the three great- 
est, or perhaps I should say the greatest three, 
professional golfers of all time, to the effect that 
not only are they unable to teach the most im- 
portant half of golf, but that it cannot be taught ; 
then I am going to tell you what I think about 
it. 

Let us see what Braid, Vardon and Taylor have 
to say about putting. At page 143 of The Com- 
plete Golfer Vardon says : ''For the proper play- 
ing of the other strokes in golf, I have told my 
readers to the best of my ability how they should 
stand and where they should put their feet. But 
except for the playing of particular strokes, which 
come within the category of those called ''fancy," 
I have no similar instruction to offer in the matter 



THE NEW GOLF 45 

of putting. There is no rule and there is no best 
way. 

* ' The fact is that there is more individuality in 
putting than in any other department of golf, and 
it is absolutely imperative that this individuality 
should be allowed to have its way. ' ' 

Following this we have what is possibly the most 
remarkable statement ever seriously put into a 
book on golf. Here it is : * ' I believe seriously that 
every man has had a particular kind of putting 
method awarded to him by Nature, and when he 
puts exactly in this way he will do well, and when 
he departs from his natural system he will miss the 
long ones and the short ones too. First of all he 
has to find out this particular method which Na- 
ture has assigned for his use.'* 

Then at page 144 we read that when a player is 
putting badly: — ''it is all because he is just that 
inch or two removed from the stance which Nature 
allotted to him for putting purposes ; but he does 
not know that, and consequently everything in the 
world except the true cause is blamed for the ex- 
traordinary things he does." 

This certainly is ingenious, but it is not very 
satisfactory. It does seem rather unkind of 
Mother Nature, after having ''butted into" our 
golf in this manner, to hide what it is she intends 
us to do ! 



46 THE NEW GOLF 

We must be patient, however, and see what 
James Braid has to say. On page 119 of How to 
Play Golf we read: ''It happens, unfortunately, 
that concerning one department of the game that 
will cause the golfer some anxiety from time to 
time, and often more when he is experienced than 
when he is not, neither I nor any other player can 
offer any words of instruction, such as if closely 
acted upon would give the same successful results 
as the advice tendered under other heads ought to 
do. This is in regard to putting." 

This surely is becoming more wonderful as we 
go on. A little later in the same book Braid in- 
forms us: "Eeally great putters are probably 
born and not made. ' ' 

This certainly is not encouraging, but let us have 
courage, for we shall require it to withstand the 
cumulative effect of what J. H. Taylor has to add 
to our already somewhat discouraging informa- 
tion. 

At page 83 of his book, Taylor on Golf, in the 
chapter ''Hints on Learning the Game," he says: 
"Coming back to the subject of actual instruction. 
After a fair amount of proficiency has been ac- 
quired in the use of the cleek, iron, and mashie, 
we have the difficulty of the putting to surmount. 
And here I may say at once it is an absolute im- 
possibihty to teach a man how to put." 



THE NEW GOLF 47 

This is going from bad to worse, but there is yet 
worse to follow. Taylor seems so determined to 
impress on his readers that the teaching of putting 
is a hopeless impossibility that he proceeds to ram 
his despairing ideas home in this manner : ' ' Even 
many of the leading professionals are weak in this 
department of the game. Do you think they 
would not improve themselves in this particular 
stroke were such a thing within the range of possi- 
bility? Certainly they would. The fact is that 
in putting, more than in aught else, a very special 
aptitude is necessary. A good eye and a faculty 
for gaging distances correctly is a great help — 
indeed, quite a necessity — as also is judgment with 
regard to the requisite power to put behind the 
ball. Unfortunately, these are things that cannot 
be taught ; they must come naturally or not at all. 

' ' All that is possible for the instructor to do is to 
discover what kind of a putting style his pupil is 
possessed of, offer him useful hints, and his ulti- 
mate measure of success is then solely in his own 
hands. 

"It is easy to tell a pupil how he must needs 
hold his clubs in driving or playing an iron shot, 
but in putting there is hardly such a necessity. 
The diversity of styles accounts for this, and in 
this particular kind of stroke a man must be con- 
tent to rely upon his own adaptability alone." 



48 THE NEW GOLF 

Taylor has mucli more of this kind of thing to 
say, bnt it is all so false, so misleading, so very 
disheartening that I shall cnt out a great deal of 
it and give just one final quotation in this particu- 
lar matter. He says: '* Putting, in short, is so 
different to any other branch of the game that the 
good putter may be said to be born, not made. ' ' 

Now here you have the combined wisdom of 
Braid, Taylor and Vardon with regard to half the 
game of golf, and that, as Taylor himself says, 
the more important part of it. They, at time of 
writing, have between them won sixteen open 
championships; their profession is to teach and 
play golf. They absolutely confess that they can- 
not teach the more important half of it, and they 
do not stop at that, for they say that one cannot 
learn it; that one must be born with the accom- 
plishment. To all of which, without any excuse or 
apology, I say ' ' Nonsense ! ' ' 

It is just nonsense of the most pernicious char- 
acter. The same journalist who was hired to put 
Vardon 's instruction into writing had the job for 
Braid's book. I am afraid this accounts for their 
strong family likeness and much of the nonsense 
that is now tacked on to the famous names of the 
two great players. Possibly Taylor's assistant 
was influenced in some way by these weird ideas. 
If this is not so it is indeed hard to see how so 



THE NEW GOLF 49 

shrewd a man and so good a golfer as J. H. Taylor 
could allow such futile stuff to be associated with 
his name. 

One will see at once the importance of the mat- 
ter I have quoted. I am producing, one may say, 
almost the authority of the world to prove that I 
cannot teach you putting, that nobody can, that 
indeed it cannot be taught. If perchance I should 
fail surely I have soft ground on which to fall ; but 
I shall not fail. I brush aside with contempt and 
indignation such hopeless nonsense and tell my 
readers that putting is surely the easiest thing in 
golf to learn, provided only that one has the pa- 
tience to carry out proper instructions and to prac- 
tise. That is the secret of good putting — prac- 
tise, and practise, and practise. 

Above everything forget about Mother Nature 
having given you a special putting style. That 
is simply journalistic stuff which Vardon proba- 
bly never even read. Nature no more attends to 
such trifling individual matters than she concerned 
herself with giving me a special style for my niblick 
shot or my push stroke. 

Forget all this nonsense. Know that you may 
be a good, an absolutely first class, putter if you 
have two wooden legs and have lost your left arm, 
though I am prepared to wager that these trifling 
deficiencies would interfere a good deal with 



50 THE NEW GOLF 

Mother Nature 's plans for your style on the green. 

Eemember that the first thing in putting is not 
any question of your style, your individuality, or 
how you look while you are doing it. Cease to 
think of yourself at all; or, if you cannot avoid 
this somewhat popular amusement, try to think of 
yourself as an old grandfather's clock and your 
hands as the bearing whereon the pendulum is 
swinging. Know that if you reproduce, as nearly 
as you can, the swing of that pendulum on to the 
ball that in the end the result will be good, for your 
mechanical efforts will have been right; and it is 
these that count in putting and not wandering 
thoughts of failure, putting the blame on Mother 
Nature, of style and so on. And know that if 
Mother Nature gave you an individuality worth 
having, you will graft that on to the proper foun- 
dation of the stroke, which is, in the first place, cor- 
rect mechanics. Know also that, so far as your 
individuality is subservient to and harmonious 
with the correct mechanical production of your 
stroke, it is a right and proper thing to let it edge 
in and assist to make your form on the green ; but 
remember above everything that the person who 
thinks of form or style except such as comes from 
playing his strokes well and truly is no guide for 
you or me. 

It may seem that I deal with this matter in a 



THE NEW GOLF 51 

somewliat irreverent manner. It is indeed hard 
to refrain from being serious and severe. It is 
almost impossible to say how much despair, gloom 
and despondency has been spread throughout the 
world of golf by the hopeless message of the great 
triumvirate on the subject of putting. Golf, as 
most of us know, is now of almost more importance 
than religion and politics together. Can one who 
knows the truth sit calmly by and see untruth 
needlessly and carelessly circulated to the detri- 
ment of a great game without raising one's voice 
in protest and flashing forth the message of hope 
and confidence and truth which must take the place 
of the woful tale of the great three — a tale to 
which they would not now subscribe their names. 

Taylor, Braid and Vardon speak of wonderful 
''individuality" in putting. If they said "con- 
tortions ' ' it might be nearer the truth. It is very 
strange, but nevertheless true, that a great num- 
ber of human beings find it extremely hard to be 
natural on a putting green when in possession of a 
putter and about to hit the ball. 

The trouble is that the grand tale of the mys- 
tery merchants has spread. The "gigantic con- 
spiracy," as James Sherlock, the famous English 
golfer, calls it, is in full operation. Every one 
who approaches golf is filled up with tales similar 
to the quotations that I have given from the books 



52 THE NEW GOLF 

alleged to be by Braid, Vardon and Taylor. That 
unfortunately is what I have to combat. It is 
truly some handicap to start out to tell simple 
honest folk the simple honest truth with such a 
mountain of prepared and authoritative falsehood 
to knock down, but fortunately I have some very 
strong corroborative testimony in support of my 
argument. 

I say '^fortunately" because it amounts to this. 
If you are going to get any good from this book 
you must believe the obvious outstanding truth 
and reason of what I say and discard the nonsense 
associated with the greatest names in the history 
of the game. 

Now, in connection with putting (the more im- 
portant half of the game, remember), some people 
might think that I ask too much when I claim to 
have my teaching accepted without demur against 
such men as the triumvirate. It does not seem so 
to me. Names mean nothing to me unless they are 
associated with the truth. Fortunately, since 
most of this foolishness was published James 
Braid has recanted. In his book. Advanced Golf, 
at page 144, Chapter X, dealing with putting 
strokes, he says : ' ' Thus practically any man has 
it in his power to become a reasonably good putter, 
and to effect a considerable improvement in his 
game as the result." 



1 



t 







;3 






o 

l-H 

H 

H 

p 



o 5 



1^ ni 



2Pq ^ 




THE NEW GOLF 53 

Here is the right note. This is the message of 
hope to the golfer and the beginner. Braid here 
says that ''practically every man" can ''become a 
reasonably good putter." I go still further. I 
should say instead of "reasonably good" "very 
good." Think what this changed message means 
to the world of golf. If I had nothing else to con- 
vey to golfers, this one lesson of hope and trust 
and confidence on the green, and my showing that 
it is justified, would be worth while. 

It will be remembered that Braid, Taylor and 
Vardon are practically agreed that good or great 
putters are born and not made. The statement is, 
of course, so ludicrous that one would if the words 
gave one any chance to do so accept them in a fig- 
urative sense. Taylor goes further and says that 
the best evidence that one cannot learn putting is 
the bad putting of some professionals. He argues 
that the fact that they cannot improve is proof that 
putting cannot be learned. 

Fortunately for the people who cannot put we 
have the two remarkable cases of Braid and Var- 
don, two great golfers who could not put when they 
were using wrong methods, but who became good 
putters directly they abandoned their faulty execu- 
tion. 

Let us see what Braid has to say of his own sal- 
vation. On page 146 of Advanced Golf he says : 



54 THE NEW GOLF 

''Of course they say that good putters are born 
and not made, and it is certainly true that some 
of the finest putters we know seem to come by 
their wonderful skill as a gift, and nowadays put 
with an ease and confidence that suggest some kind 
of inspiration. But it is also the fact that a man 
who was not a born putter, and whose putting all 
through his golfing youth was of the most moderate 
quality, may by study and practise make himself a 
putter who need fear nobody on any putting 
green. ' ' 

Let me pause here, ye despondent ones, to repeat 
the words ' ' who need fear nobody on any putting 
green." This, now, is going almost further than 
I do. 

Braid proceeds: "I may suggest that I have 
proved this in my own case. Until comparatively 
recently there is no doubt that I was really a poor 
putter. Long after I was a scratch player I lost 
more matches through bad putting than anything 
else. I realized that putting was the thing that 
stood in the way of further improvement, and I did 
my best to improve it, so that to-day my critics are 
kind enough to say that there is not very much 
wanting in my play on the putting green, while I 
know that it was an important factor in gaining 
for me my recent championship. 

**So I may be allowed the privilege of indicating 



THE NEW GOLF 55 

the path along which improvement in this depart- 
ment of the game may best be effected; and what I 
have to say at the beginning is, that putting is es- 
sentially a thing for the closest mathematical and 
other reckoning. It is a game of calculations pure 
and simple, a matter for the most careful analysis 
and thought. ' ' 

It would scarcely be possible for any one to eat 
his own words more fully and effectually than this. 
We may, I think, take it, as this is in Braid's most 
important work. Advanced Golf, and as this is, so 
far as I am aware his last word on golf, that we 
now have his mature thought on this most impor- 
tant matter. The wonderful thing is that although 
Braid recants in this whole-hearted manner and 
gives himself as an instance of a very bad putter 
who worked out his own salvation, indeed goes so 
far as to say he may ''be allowed the privilege of 
indicating the path along which improvement in 
this department of the game may best be effected," 
he gives us not the slightest clue as to how his 
reformation was effected. That would indeed have 
been a pity unless I had happened to see him put- 
ting in his old bad days. I have already told what 
it was that saved James Braid from remaining a 
bad and unreliable putter. 

There is another brilliant player who suffers 
from the same fault, or perhaps I should say, who 



56 THE NEW GOLF 

did wlien I saw him play, for it is years now since 
I saw him tap a put. That is George Duncan. 
Like many who tap their puts, Duncan on his day 
is a wizard ; but there is another side always to the 
tale of the man who will not follow through in put- 
ting; and I am inclined to think that in times of 
severe nervous tension, as when a man is laboring 
under a great match strain, the tapping or stabbing 
of puts must of necessity be a more dangerous 
game than leaving all that is possible to the club 
as one does in the true method of putting. 

I have spoken against putting with drag, espe- 
cially for long puts. It is obvious that a golf ball 
at rest sinks into the turf for quite an appreciable 
space. The area of contact between turf and ball 
is a considerable part of the surface of the sphere 
and not a point as it would be on a glass table. 
It stands to reason that if this ball is rolled slowly 
toward the hole it will depress the sward approxi- 
mately to the same extent all the way to the hole. 
In other words its groove is holding it to the line 
it started on. Now if the ball is started by any 
kind of a blow that makes it jump from the green 
one immediately introduces into the roll of the ball 
a new element of risk, for it is impossible to say 
what it will meet when it comes down and how it 
will meet it, for, unless the put is a very strong one, 
stalks of grass, twigs and pimples have more than 



THE NEW GOLF 57 

a theoretical effect on the run of a golf ball. For 
this and many other reasons, some of which I have 
given, there is no put superior to the plain put. 

In putting, the feet should be kept fairly close 
together and the ball addressed so that it is about 
midway between the feet, if anything slightly for- 
ward of the midway line. The best criterion, how- 
ever, for the right place in which to find the ball in 
relation to the feet is : Does a line from the bridge 
of the nose fall plumb onto it? It is quite pos- 
sible to dogmatize too much as to how one shall 
stand when one is putting. Much depends on 
one's physical conformation. Photographs give 
one a good idea of the methods employed by the 
leading players and they are a very valuable means 
of instruction. Examine not one or fifty, but may- 
hap hundreds, then again and again, about all 
points on which you require enlightenment. They 
will infallibly assist you in time. 

Generally speaking, in putting one stands with 
the right foot almost at a right angle to the line of 
run to the hole and the left at about an angle of 
forty-five degrees to the right, but here again I 
shall not attempt to dictate. What I say is good^ 
generally. It should suit you. It may not do so. 
Vary it slightly until it does. It is not in the 
minor matters that we must be strict. It is in 
fundamentals that we are adamant. 



58 THE NEW GOLF 

In all putting one should so far as possible con- 
fine the movement to hands and wrists until after 
impact. In the follow through, the hands and 
wrists and forearms must go out after the ball; 
otherwise there is a great chance of hooking — I do 
not mean pulling — one's put. In approach puts 
one cannot rigidly adhere to the rule about con- 
fining the action of putting to the hands and 
wrists ; and as a matter of fact, there is less of it 
in short puts in practise than there is in theory; 
but it is the right idea to inculcate, for the more we 
reduce the wrists to one bearing (as in the pendu- 
lum) the greater delicacy and accuracy shall we 
get. 

Standing with the feet together is quite impor- 
tant in many cases. It is not essential. If one is 
putting well enough to do all one wants, one need 
not alter one's style. If, however, one is swaying, 
one should at once put the feet more closely to- 
gether, as it makes swaying almost impossible. 

It is of the greatest importance to think of noth- 
ing but getting the ball into the hole when one is 
putting. There is, one may say, judging from the 
amount I write of putting, a great deal to remem- 
ber. There reaUy is not. I write in great meas- 
ure of the things that one must know but must for- 
get, or at most use sub-consciously, when one is 
playing. Above everything be natural. Never 



THE NEW GOLF 59 

fall into a cramped position. Never worry for a 
moment about which hand is doing it or when the 
pressure of a certain finger comes in. All this 
kind of thing is nonsense and calculated to retard 
your development instead of to assist it. 

If, however, the result of your stroke is not what 
it should have been, I have no objection to your 
holding an inquiry into it provided you do not go 
into it on the course and delay and annoy people 
who are following you. 

I have said that there is, for all practical pur- 
poses, one put. That statement will hold good; 
for even when one is stymied, in the great majority 
of cases one can get some assistance from the 
green and so get into the hole around the obstruct- 
ing ball without playing other than a plain put. 

There are, however, cases in which one must cut 
or pull round the obstructing ball. These are 
strokes which are better taught on the green than 
in a book. One must have a club suitable for 
them and one must know the green on which one is 
playing. A simple cut, or '* sliced" put, will run 
round a stymie with a lovely curl from one side of 
the hole. Try it from the other side and the result 
of the stroke is quite different. The "nap" of the 
green, otherwise the way the cutters have laid the 
grass, is entirely opposite. It is impossible to 
speak positively about the effect of cut puts or 



6o THE NEW GOLF 

pulled puts on a putting green; for we are not, 
as in billiards, dealing practically with known 
quantities. No two greens are alike. No two 
''runs" to a hole have the same characteristics 
when it comes to a question of such nicety as intro- 
ducing spin ; so one must be content in these mat- 
ters to get one's experience mainly by practise, 
and, if one is keen enough, the study of books 
which go fully into such matters. 

It must not be thought because I pass them by 
like this that I think these matters unworthy of 
study. If a man really loves the game he should 
know them. He may not want them five times in 
a lifetime, for generally there is another and an 
easier way out of the difficulty, but sometimes 
there comes the position which demands one shot 
and one shot only. That is the time your true 
golfer wants to have it in his repertory. 

Many books give much advice about putting up- 
hill and down-hill, across hill, and everywhere, ex- 
cept perhaps in the subway. Their authors tell 
you about getting great results by using the toe 
and the heel and other funny bits of the putter. 
There is just one part of the putter to use for put- 
ting, and that is the middle of its face. That may 
not be geometrically correct. Here is another in- 
struction that is probably less so, but still to you 
expressive and explicit. Use only the center of 



THE NEW GOLF 6i 

your club-face. Don't think of toeing or heeling 
anything. You will never be so good a golfer that 
you can do anything off the toe or the heel of your 
putter that you cannot do equally well, or better, 
with the center of your club. 

In putting one must rivet one's attention on the 
ball and keep it there until one has played one's 
stroke. Starting to practise near the hole, one has 
not the same desire to relax one's attention and to 
follow the run of the ball as one has if one starts 
far away from the hole or by driving. In these 
cases there is always a great tendency on the part 
of the beginner to look up. This means moving 
the head and unsettling the stroke. It is a fault 
of the worst description that must be most per- 
sistently fought. 

No advice about putting would be complete with- 
out a reference to the golfer's outstanding sin on 
the green. One should make up one 's mind always 
to "give the hole a chance;" in other words, one 
should always put so strongly that, unless one 
goes into the hole, one's ball either stays opposite 
the hole or rolls past it. 

We see frequently in books advice to search out 
some particular blade of grass on the way to the 
hole and to put over it. For sheer futility this 
always seems to me to be entitled to a very high 
position. There is a wonderful family resem- 



62 THE NEW GOLF 

blance in blades of grass even when they have their 
heads on. When they are cut across somewhere 
about the abdomen they, to me at least, cease to 
have any very distinguishing characteristics such 
as would enable one to pick out a prominent look- 
ing fellow say ten yards — or feet — away. 

We may disregard such advice as this and put 
for a point from one foot to three feet behind or 
beyond the hole, according to the length of the put 
we have to make. If we could get into this habit 
it would be much better for us and we should not 
have so many aggravating short puts. 

Here is something which Vardon has to say of 
putting that is of value: ''There should be no 
sharp hit and no jerk in the swing, which should 
have the even, gentle motion of a pendulum. In 
the backward swing, the length of which, as in all 
other strokes in golf, is regulated by the distance 
it is desired to make the ball travel, the head of 
the putter should be kept exactly in the line of the 
put. Accuracy will be impossible if it is brought 
round at all. There should be a short follow 
through after impact, varying, of course, accord- 
ing to the length of the put. In the case of a long- 
one, the club will go through much farther, and 
then the arms would naturally be more extended. ' ' 

This is good practical advice as regards the 
golf in it, but as a matter of simple mechanics it 



THE NEW GOLF 63 

will not square with Vardon's previous instruc- 
tions. 

Vardon tells us that the put is the only pure 
wrist stroke in golf. As a matter of fact there is 
not such a stroke in golf as a ''pure wrist" shot, 
unless one could call a six-inch put so. I am re- 
ferring to this here, not as a quibble, but as a 
matter of practical golf of considerable import- 
ance. 

It is of the utmost importance in golf generally, 
and in putting particularly, that the player should 
have a perfectly clear idea what it is that he is try- 
ing to do. This condition of mind is conspicuously 
absent in the play of the great majority. In quite 
the largest number of cases of bad strokes the 
fault lies not with the eyes or the limbs, but with 
the general in command, the brain, and even it 
does not fail on account of any inherent defect, but 
simply because it had never been trained to give 
the requisite order. 

That being so, let us note carefully what Vardon 
says about taking the head of the putter back 
''exactly in the line of the put" produced through 
the ball. This would be impossible if the put were, 
as Vardon says it is, a pure wrist stroke. It will 
be apparent that if one attempts to play any put 
with any ordinary putter as a pure wrist stroke 
that the head of the club will begin to curve away 



64 THE NEW GOLF 

from the ball inward to the player the moment it 
leaves the ball. The only put possible as a pure 
wrist stroke, that is playing it without moving the 
wrists from their position, is a put played by a 
putter with a perfectly vertical shaft, and we know 
that these are not used. 

The ordinary putter shaft, as is well known, 
lies in toward the player at a considerable angle. 
The only way to carry out Vardon's instructions 
in putting, and to keep the head of the putter 
"exactly in the line of the put," is to allow one's 
wrists in putting to travel with the club. This 
one must do on the backward swing as well as in 
the follow-through. Any attempt to put in any 
other way must result in bad form, that bad form 
which comes from the neglect of obvious mechani- 
cal necessities, and therefore the worst kind of bad 
form. 

Vardon has some other advice to give that is 
worth noting, but not following. He says: '*In 
the follow-through the putter should be kept well 
down, the bottom edge scraping the edge of the 
grass for some inches." I am quoting this be- 
cause here again we see the impossibihty, with any 
ordinary putter, of making the follow-through 
without letting the wrists go, and moreover the 
instructions for ** scraping the edge of the grass 
for some inches" mean playing the put with the 





(1) Cocking up the Toe 



(2) Cocking up the Heel 



r 




(3) Turning the Face of 
the Club forward 



(4) Cocking up the Face 
EREORS IN PUTTING 



THE NEW GOLF 65 

descending blow, the old, faulty method which 
Vardon has fortunately abandoned. 

In those days Vardon argued in favor of the 
stabbed put. He said: "It is easy to understand 
how much more this course of procedure will tend 
towards the accuracy and delicacy of the stroke 
than the reverse method, in which the blade of the 
putter would be cocked up as soon as the ball had 
left it.'' 

Is not this strange tuition? What is more 
natural than that the face of the club should be 
cocked up as soon as the ball has left it. Let us 
affix our ideal putter head to the pendulum of the 
clock and let it play the put. We shall of course 
see that the face of the putter begins to cock up 
the instant the ball has left it. This is as it should 
be, as indeed it is, in the vast majority of all golf 
strokes, excluding of course those which come with- 
in the class known as ''push" strokes. 

Any one who is trying to put with cut must re- 
member what I have said about trying to do any- 
thing to the ball during impact. Vardon says: 
"Swing just a trifle away from the straight line 
outwards, and the moment you come back on to the 
ball draw the club sharply across it." 

There must be no attempt in putting to do any- 
thing "the moment you come back on to the ball" 
that was not an essential part of the arc of the 



66 THE NEW GOLF 

swing as determined by the player the moment it 
was started. The fact that the club encounters 
the ball is an incident in the swing, but the arc of 
that swing having been once settled cannot be 
readjusted successfully nor altered in any way as 
a matter of good and consistent golf. This idea 
of doing something to the ball while the club is 
adhering to it must be absolutely abandoned. 

Much might be written about putting on undulat- 
ing greens, but here I am sure the green is better 
than all the books ever written. There is, however, 
one broad general piece of advice that I shall give 
to players when allowing for the run of the ball in 
putting across a ridge or ridges or on the side of a 
hill, and that is ' ' Always allow plenty. ' ' 

The golfer's cardinal sin on the green is being 
short, not * ' giving the hole a chance. " It is near- 
ly, if not quite, as bad to be narrow, for in this 
case you throw away any chance you may have 
of holing out, and on a down-hill run once the ball 
gets away from the hole it often means a long up 
hill journey. 



CHAPTER V 

THE MASHIE 

We have now finished with the putter for the 
present. Naturally we look for the next stroke. 
It is the shortest stroke that we have to play with 
a mashie. That is a stymie near the hole. 

Quite frequently, on account of the defective 
construction of the mashie, a niblick or a mashie 
niblick is a better club for this shot than an ordi- 
nary mashie. For the most delicate work on the 
green it is however obvious that these clubs are too 
heavy. The fact is that the modern golfer has 
not in his bag a club really suitable for playing 
short stymies. A special stymie mashie is re- 
quired. It should have about the loft of the nib- 
lick, the same angle of sole with the face so as to 
give the sharp edge to go in under the ball, about 
the same weight as an ordinary mashie, if anything 
a little lighter, and no marking whatever on the 
face. In addition to this the sole should start 
curving up a very short distance from the face. 

The ordinary mashie has a sole that is too broad. 
It is so broad that frequently when one turns its 

67 



68 THE NEW GOLF 

face back a little to get under the ball the back 
edge grounds first and so, cocking up the front 
edge, robs the stroke of any delicacy. If the sole 
is run off at an angle like a niblick and then quickly 
curved upwards it improves the club considerably. 
Also it must be remembered that many cut shots, 
especially with back spin, are played with the 
mashie. The amount of spin on the ball is regula- 
ted by the pace at which the club passes it. An 
unduly broad sole on the club cuts off the pace 
directly the club touches the earth much more than 
the curved sole does. 

I had one particularly serviceable little mashie 
of this type once. Stymies had no terror for it. 
I showed it to George Duncan and dwelt particu- 
larly on the importance of the curved sole. Dun- 
can told me that he always had the back edge of 
his mashie s rounded off. 

I have said that a stymie mashie should have 
the face perfectly smooth. Unless I had found 
this out in the most practical way I should have 
doubted it. One can get a more sudden rise with 
a smooth faced club than one can with any club 
that takes a grip of the ball whether it be by lines, 
dots, holes or otherwise. 

My light mashie taught me this. It had a per- 
fectly smooth face. I had a shot with it that I 
often set up as an exercise for people who thought 



THE NEW GOLF 69 

they could use their mashies on a stymie. I put 
one ball half an inch from the hole and the other 
six and a half inches away from it — a dead stymie. 
Sherlock says it is the hardest stymie in the game. 
Certainly it is not the easiest. With my light 
smooth-faced mashie with the curved sole I could 
get this shot three or four times in succession. 
One day I took it into my head that perhaps I could 
play the stroke better if I got a better grip of the 
ball with the club. I had the face of the club 
covered with a thin film of soft solder. It ruined 
the delicacy of the shot. With a smooth-faced 
club the ball starts running up the face directly 
it strikes the club. With a marked club it grips 
more and stays lower. That is why a smooth- 
faced club is better for a sudden rise. I had never 
thought of it in this way before but probably the 
same holds good of the niblick ; in fact, it is almost 
a certainty that it does. 

I obtained a fine grip with the soft metal facing. 
I am inclined to think that this idea is superior to 
rust and it certainly looks much better. There 
can be no doubt that some better medium of con- 
tact is wanted between the iron clubs and the ball 
than now exists. The chalk for the cue is missing. 
This soft metal may supply it. 

We must now consider the best way to play 
the stymie that I have set up. This is by means 



70 THE NEW GOLF 

of a stroke that I introduced into golf myself. I 
had known it for many years, but I first published 
it in 1908. George Duncan was the first profes- 
sional to whom I showed it. 

What Duncan cannot do with a mashie is hardly 
worth troubling about. The enforced idleness of 
a wet Saturday afternoon led to my ''putting one 
over" on him. The rain was coming down in 
tanks. I was filling in time knocking a couple of 
balls about the mat in Duncan's shop at the Hanger 
Hill Club. I started practising stymies. Pres- 
ently I said, "How would you play this stymie, 
George?" 

"Just in the usual way," said Duncan. 

I set it up for him then, and he played it "just 
in the usual way. ' ' 

"They all play it like that, don't they?" I said. 

"Yes," replied Duncan. 

"Then it isn't the best way," I replied; "I'll 
show you a better. ' ' 

Duncan's face moved a trifle, but he smothered 
the smile, and I showed him the stroke. He was 
on to it like a cat after a mouse. As he said after- 
wards, it isn't every day that any one teaches him 
a new stroke in golf. He got it after a few tries, 
and then he could hardly wait until the rain 
stopped to get out on to the green. 

The essential difference between my stroke and 



THE NEW GOLF 71 

the old stroke is that the regulation stymie stroke 
is, like every stroke in golf, an arc. My stroke is 
a perfectly straight stroke. It goes back parallel 
with the green. This is all the difference, but it 
means everything in delicacy, in accuracy, in quick 
rise and sudden stop. 

It is almost incredible, yet is the fact, that many 
people said that this was a foul stroke when I 
published it first in The Daily Mail, London. 
Others were equally sure that there was nothing 
new about it, that in fact it had been played since 
golf was golf ! 

The difficulty in teaching this stroke to any one 
lies in the fact that from time immemorial, even 
in the shortest put, the moment the club came 
away from the ball it began to ascend in a curve. 
One may, and often does, keep the club low; but 
the curve, or arc, is always in the stroke. In my 
stroke there is no curve. Eight throughout the 
stroke, swing back, swing forward and follow 
through there is no curve. The line of travel of 
the club's head is as nearly as may be the same as 
the green. 

There must be no idea of hitting the ball or of 
taking turf. The endeavor must be to insert the 
front edge of the mashie sharply between the ball 
and the green. The result of this is that far less 
force goes into propulsion and much more into 



72 THE NEW GOLF 

elevation than in the ordinary stymie shot where 
the ball is frequently hit as the club is coming up. 
It seems curious to many people, but it is sound 
golf nevertheless, to warn one against trying to 
get the ball up by hitting up. The great secret of 
getting a ball up well is to hit down enough. So 
in this delicate shot the straight travel of the club 
head is much better than the curved movement of 
the ordinary stroke. 

There is a marked peculiarity about this stroke 
which should have been enough to show any one 
that it was very ditferent from the regulation 
stymie stroke. On account of the blow not being 
an arc the hands are forced to move parallel with 
the head of the club as the stroke is being played. 

It is very hard to wean golfers temporarily from 
the arc, or ordinary golf stroke. In teaching this 
new stroke to quite good golfers I have put down 
a match a few inches behind the ball and the same 
in front and said, ' ' Now go back in a straight line 
to that match, so that the middle of the sole of your 
club is over it, and then go smartly forward to the 
other match without raising the club. ' ' Even then 
I have had them raise the club on the ball, and 
come down for the finish, but that of course had 
spoiled the stroke. 

George Duncan, after full experiment with this 
stroke, refused to be photographed for Modern 



THE NEW GOLF 73 

Golf, playing the ordinary short stymie stroke, 
for he asserted that my stroke had put it out of 
date. 

One of my critics in England stated that a full 
description of this stroke could be found in any 
book on golf. In Advanced Golf, in describing 
how to pitch over the obstructing ball, James Braid 
says : * ' ... it is just an ordinary chip up, with a 
clean and quick rise, the fact being remembered 
that the green must not be damaged. To spare 
the latter the swing back should be low down and 
near to the surface, which will check the tendency 
to dig. The thing that will ensure the success of 
the shot, so far as the quick and clean rise is con- 
cerned — and often enough success depends entire- 
ly upon that — is the follow-through. Generally, 
if the club is taken through easily and cleanly, all 
will be well. ' ' 

Could anything be more unlike the description I 
give of my stroke than that ? With my stroke one 
cannot damage the green, for one moves in a line 
with it ; also the hands follow the head of the club 
back and forth, which they do not in an ordinary 
shot; while the thing that '^will ensure the suc- 
cess" of my stroke is not the follow-through but 
playing the first part of the stroke, up to and in- 
cluding impact, in the manner I mention. It is 
curious to see here again the persistent error about 



74 THE NEW GOLF 

the follow-througli affecting what has gone before. 
It is curious also to see no reference to the im- 
portance of the low follow-through, which is not, 
be it remembered, important in itself, but merely 
so as an indication that what went before was cor- 
rectly done, and for its effect before the stroke 
was played — if one may put it so — in determining 
the arc in which the club head was to travel, since 
the player must have decided that he would play 
his stroke in such a way that his follow-through 
would be low. 

In this stymie stroke — I speak now of the one 
Braid is describing — the club may be ''taken 
though easily and cleanly" every time, and yet the 
stroke may be an utter failure. Much more de- 
pends on the attention that is paid to elevation 
and keeping the club down so as to give the loft a 
chance to fulfil its function, which is to lift the ball. 

Many players, even quite experienced golfers, 
forget that their duty in the vast majority of 
strokes is to hit the ball and that the loft will 
do the rest. This is not of course true of some 
strokes, but it certainly is of the vast majority. 
More strokes are ruined on the golf course by 
hitting upward, by neglecting to trust the loft, than 
by anything else. 

It is not altogether curious that this is so. In 
nearly every other implement with which man hits 



THE NEW GOLF 75 

a ball into the air he makes his own loft by the 
manner in which he turns his striking implement 
on to the ball. I believe that golf is the only 
game of any consequence wherein the player 
strikes a direct blow towards the desired goal and 
leaves the matter of trajectory to be automatically 
settled for him by the angle at which the face of 
his implement is set. It is not therefore surpris- 
ing that this fault of hitting upwards takes some 
fighting. Women are particularly prone to this 
error. In many cases it would be a good idea to 
put, three inches in front of the ball, a small white 
peg three quarters of an inch or so in height 
and to tell one 's pupil that she must not only play 
a good drive or cleek shot but that she must also 
go on and cut down the peg in front of the ball 
in the follow-through. 

In marked contrast to the manner in which 
ignorant persons received the new stroke in Eng- 
land was its reception by America 's leading player, 
Mr. Jerome D. Travers. 

I was talking to one of the directors of a large 
sporting goods house in New York one very hot 
day, when Mr. Travers came in, and he introduced 
him to me. 

* ' Jerry, ' ' said he, ' ' Mr. Vaile will talk the theory 
of golf with you by the day, hour and minute." 

*'Not on your — life, especially on a day like 



76 THE NEW GOLF 

this," I said; *'but," I added, ''I'll do something 
better than that. I'll take Mr. Travers out to 
your putting green and teach him a stroke he 
doesn't know." 

"That sounds all right," said Mr. Travers, and 
without any delay we went out to the putting green, 
where I set Mr. Travers up the wicked little stymie 
I have mentioned. 

''Can you get in there?" I asked him. 

*'No, I'm pretty sure I cannot," he said; and 
off an unyielding floor it is not too easy. 

''If I do it three times running, do you think 
it's a shot worth learning?" 

"Certainly I do" said the open champion. 

I dropped my ball in three times and the famous 
little golfer took the club and got right down to 
work. He was not bothering to decry the stroke, 
to call it foul or old because he didn't know it. He 
saw me do it. He knew it was useful He wasted 
no time. He learned it. This incident is typical 
of the American's mental outlook. He is always 
ready to take up anything new and good. He may, 
like our Missouri friend, want to be shown; but if 
one tells him something he does not know he does 
not take it as prima facie evidence that one is a 
fool, a theorist, a faddist or a revolutionist. In 
England this is a very common error. The men- 
tality of the ordinary Englishman, in England, is 





The Right Loft for a 
Putter 

More than this is dan- 
gerous 



The Shallow Putter 
Note the danger of its 
getting under the Ball. 





The edge of the shallow- 
faced Putter is liable 
to get under the Ball 



The Putter of proper 
Depth does not get 
under the Ball 



COMPARISON OF PUTTERS 



THE NEW GOLF 77 

not very alert. Small wonder, for it is never 
stimulated. The consequence is that he views any 
new thought with suspicion, for it is something 
that may tire, nay, even bore, him. 

I have shortly referred to the merits of this 
particular stymie shot. I have I think dwelt suffi- 
ciently on its remarkably quick rise which is so 
often "of the very essence of the contract," as 
the lawyers say. There is another point that in 
a stymie is often equally important and that 
is in checking the run of the ball, after it has 
pitched. 

I have shown how in this stroke more force goes 
into elevation and less into propulsion than in the 
ordinary stymie stroke. That in itself tends to 
give the ball a deader drop with less run than the 
ordinary stroke has; but in addition to this we 
must remember that in this stroke the blow is 
struck by a club that gets in under the ball as far 
as is practicable and hits it just as low down as 
it is possible to hit a golf ball in practical golf. 
It is the nearest thing to a scientific jump shot at 
bilhards that can be put onto a putting green. The 
consequence is that the ball takes more true back- 
spin than in any other stymie stroke that is played, 
and it is therefore possible to jump some stymies 
and yet to control the run of the ball in a manner 
that would be impractical were one to use the 



78 THE NEW GOLF 

stroke of which Braid himself says that: — *' . . . 
it is just an ordinary chip up." 

The stroke has another quahty to recommend 
it. I have found that its direction for strokes of 
a much greater length than we have so far been 
considering is remarkable. So remarkable is it 
that I was forced to look into it to see why it 
should possess this quality in so marked a degree. 
I came to the conclusion that it is because of the 
straight swing back and the straight follow- 
through. This, as we all know, is what everybody 
lays down as the great rule in putting. As we also 
know it is what nearly every one neglects. From 
the nature of this stroke it is almost impossible 
to avoid carrying out the rule both with regard 
to the swing back and the follow-through. 

This stroke may also be used as a chip shot. 
If one has a bad bit of green to dodge one can 
rely on going as straight through the air as on the 
green when once one has got command of the 
stroke, and as the cut is pure back-cut it has no 
tendency to curl the ball away from the hole when 
it lands. 

The same stroke may of course be used in a 
stymie with ' ' cut, ' ' if from the nature of the shot 
it looks as if an extra quick rise is wanted and 
can be obtained. I may say, however, that I have 



THE NEW GOLF 79 

never yet seen the stymie, either as regards prox- 
imity of the obstruction to one 's ball or the cramp- 
ing of the line of flight by nearness of the obstruct- 
ing ball to the hole, that could not be negotiated 
by the straight shot with what back-spin came to 
it from playing the stroke naturally. 

It will sometimes happen that one is a long 
way from the hole and is stymied by a ball that 
is, comparatively speaking, near the hole — is, in 
fact, so placed that if one succeeded in pitching 
over it one could not possibly control the run of 
the ball sufficiently to give one a chance to make 
the hole. In these cases if one can cut or pull 
one may use these strokes. If the ground shows 
any sign of giving assistance it is much better to 
try to use it to get enough roll towards the hole 
to enable one to make a plain put instead of putting 
any work on one's ball. If none of these courses 
is open to one, there is another that I have used 
with success, yet which cannot be recommended so 
long as one has any other chance. The last resort 
is to play my stymie shot with a good high pitch 
right up near the obstructing ball and to jump 
it on the bound, continuing on to the hole. That 
the shot is practical you will soon find by the num- 
ber of times you hit the other ball when once you 
start practising. After a while you will overcome 



8o THE NEW GOLF 

this attraction and then you will find that you get 
quite as much success as you have any right to 
expect with a shot of this kind. 

We have now to deal with the ordinary chip 
shot. This as you know starts at the edge of the 
green. It seems obvious that you ought to slide 
into it almost without knowing it. Your last ap- 
proach put was only a foot shorter than this shot 
you are trying now. What is the difference? 
You will stand up much straighter, which is natural 
as your club is a little longer. Your stance is 
more open. Your right foot is nearly at a right 
angle to the line to the hole, and your left foot 
points more towards the hole; in fact, your feet 
are nearly, but not quite, at a right angle. Your 
knees are almost stiff; that is to say, they are 
barely flexed, and both your feet are, and during 
the stroke, remain, in full contact with the earth. 

The ball is taken opposite the right heel. The 
weight is fairly equally divided with an inclination 
to have slightly more on the right foot than on 
the left. As in the put the feet are kept close 
together. The swing back comes mainly from the 
forearms. One must guard against imagining 
the wrists into this stroke. Strive above every- 
thing else to hit the ball so that the front edge of 
the club is at a right angle to the line of run to 
the hole and finish your stroke with it in that 



THE NEW GOLF 8i 

position. It will se&m as though this makes one 
play a constrained finish. It will cause one, in 
the finish, to point one's left elbow at the hole. 
If these two items are kept in mind one's direc- 
tion will never be very bad. 

One could fill reams of paper instructing one's 
readers in the various kinds of mashie strokes, 
cut shots and run up strokes and how to swerve 
and run and so forth. These are all very useful 
and much that is quite fascinating may no doubt 
be written about them, and in its right place I 
hope to have something to say about the general 
principles of the flight of the ball and how it is 
influenced by spin and other factors. I am satis- 
fied in the meantime to leave this subject, for I am 
convinced, more now than I was in 1909, of the im- 
portance of back-spin in golf, even as top-spin 
reigns in tennis. I have already in some small way 
referred to it and it will recur again and again 
in such a manner that I hope my readers, with- 
out being wearied by what really is a somewhat 
abstruse matter, will get all the practical and in- 
teresting portion of the subject that has a direct 
bearing on their game, as well as directions as to 
the best way to produce back-spin. 

One of the greatest secrets of success, with the 
mashie particularly, although this applies to all 
iron clubs, is to keep the swing as upright as pos- 



82 THE NEW GOLF 

sible; that is, to have the head of the club as 
nearly in the plane of the ball's flight for as great 
a time as possible while the stroke is being played 
and in the follow-through. 

There is one thing I must impress on my readers 
and that is that it is not necessarily a sign that 
one is master of the mashie because one carves 
bigger divots than any other member of the club. 
In the old days the divot was of more importance 
than the stroke ! Hit your ball as cleanly as you 
can whenever the lie will allow you to do so. What 
you do to the turf should always be merely an 
incident of the stroke. I condemned this practise 
in Modern Golf, pointing out that agriculture does 
not rightly form any part of the great game of golf 
and should not be unnecessarily obtruded therein. 
The greatest masters of the mashie are much more 
merciful to the turf now than they were formerly. 
Of course there will be shots when you must dig 
your ball out. Then it is no question of haK 
measures; but, generally speaking, don't hit the 
earth unless you need to do so. Vardon has al- 
tered his method a good deal in this respect of 
recent years. 



CHAPTEE VI 

THE lEON 

The iron is used when the shot is beyond the 
range of the mashie. About eighty yards is all 
that one should, generally speaking, ask the mashie 
to do. Above that one should use the iron until 
something of greater capacity is required. 

It is always well to try to get one's results from 
a club that has the work well within its power in 
preference to forcing another club to its limit. It 
stands to reason that one keeps greater command 
in this way. 

The same rule holds good as between the iron 
and the cleek. A half or three-quarter shot with 
the cleek is frequently much better than a full shot 
with the iron. 

I have already spoken of the importance in all 
iron play of standing well over the club. Of course 
the nature of the clubs themselves in some measure 
compels this ; but it is a point of great importance, 
and as a player begins to understand his clubs a 
little better he should gradually start trying to 

83 



84 THE NEW GOLF 

consider the finer points in their make and their 
adaptability to his style and build. As a general 
rule the nearer one gets to the hole the more one 
must stand over one's club until when one has 
arrived on the green one is found addressing the 
ball so that a plumb line from the eye will drop 
right on to the ball. This in itself is a strong 
argument in favor of keeping in as close to one's 
work as practicable; for the greater the demand 
for accuracy becomes, the more one's desire to get 
one's eye into the line is seen. 

The stance for the ordinary iron shot is not quite 
so open as for the mashie. I have in the chapter 
on gripping and soling referred specially to the 
importance of allowing the club to take its position 
naturally so that it lies on its sole from heel to toe 
and is neither cocked up on the heel nor put down 
by the toe. These are two grave errors. Possibly 
the worse is to be down by the toe. If one takes 
turf too heavily by the heel one is more nearly in a 
line where the power is developed, to wit, by the 
shaft, but if one happens to put the toe of one 's club 
into the earth during a stroke, that is the end of it. 
The leverage at the end of the head being so much 
greater causes the shaft to turn in the hand, thus 
laying the face of the club back and irretrievably 
ruining the stroke. 

The nature of the swing in using the iron must 



THE NEW GOLF 85 

be learned from carefully studying the photo- 
graphs and the explanation of the golf stroke. 
The regulation of one's distance is obtained by 
the length of the swing back. To put it in another 
way, when you want a shorter distance chop off 
some of your swing. This would apply in the 
case of the ordinary tuition where the drive is 
taught first. In this case you are being asked to 
add to your length of swing and you must do so in 
all ways in conformity with the general principles 
laid down in my analysis of the golf stroke. 

In speaking of the iron shot Vardon says in The 
Complete Golfer: ''When a few extra yards are 
wanted, put an additional inch or two on to the 
backward swing, and so on; but never, however 
you may satisfy yourself with excuses that you 
are doing a wise and proper thing, attempt to 
force the pace at which the club is traveling in 
the downward swing, or, on the other hand, at- 
tempt to check it. I believe in the club being 
brought down fairly quickly in the case of all iron 
shots; but it should be the natural speed that 
comes as the result of the speed and length of the 
upward swing, and the gain in it should be even 
and continuous throughout." 

I am afraid that this idea of even and continu- 
ous acceleration of speed would if followed out 
upset the iron play of most people, especially if a 



86 THE NEW GOLF 

consideration of the upward swing is also allowed 
to obtrude itself into the downward swing. I can- 
not say too often that whether it is with the iron 
or any other club there is only one thing to think 
of when one has arrived at the top of the swing 
and that is of hitting the ball. Absolutely nothing 
else must be on one 's mind. Nothing else is prac- 
tical golf. I should not even excuse one for think- 
ing of my directions ! When at play the less one 
thinks of the book the better for one. That is 
how too many people abuse books. They stand in 
front of a little ball that they want to hit. Some 
one has written a chapter of ten thousand words 
on that one little thing and how to hit it with a 
driver. Of what use is that chapter at that time. 
Almost none ! Part of it may be actively useful. 
Part of it may be sub-consciously used. Much 
more of it may be used in the study that night after 
dinner, and with a high-ball and a cigar to tone 
it down, to explain what was wrong with the 
stroke; and some of that session will be actively 
useful or sub-consciously used next time you go 
on to the links ; and so on and so on until one gets 
too old or too wise — or dies. 

There is something else that Vardon has to say 
about the swing in the iron shot that seems to me 
to merit consideration. This is it: ''Try, there- 
fore, always to swing back at the same rate, and to 



THE NEW GOLF 87 

come on to the ball naturally and easily after- 
wards. Of course, in accordance with the simple 
laws of gravity and applied force, the farther back 
you swing the faster will your club be traveling 
when it reaches the ball, and the harder will be 
the hit. Therefore if the golfer will learn by ex- 
perience exactly how far back he should swing 
with a certain club in order to get a certain dis- 
tance, and will teach himself to swing to just the 
right length and with always the same amount of 
force applied, the rest is in the hands of Nature, 
and can be depended upon with far more certainty 
than anything which the wayward hands and head 
of the golfer can accomplish. This is a very sim- 
ple and obvious truth, but it is one of the main 
principles of golf, and one that is far too often 
neglected. ' ' 

What is '' simple and obvious" to one person 
is a deep and hidden mystery to another. I think 
that this quotation is somewhat involved and mis- 
leading. Gravity and Nature with a capital N 
should be left out of the calculation in every way. 

Here we only have to consider golf and art em- 
ployed to assist us in using our natural advan- 
tages, or disadvantages; but the moment we be- 
gin to cumber our minds with such things as 
gravity and a personified edition of ordinary 
human nature we are splitting up our attention 



88 THE NEW GOLF 

and intention more than is good for the iron 
shot. 

First, as to gravity, forget it. One can use the 
good old pendulum stunt to illustrate the put be- 
cause it is a perfectly sound example. I have seen 
Braid putting at such a rate that any respectable 
grandfather's clock could give him six inches start 
and then beat him to the ball. As a matter of 
purely practical golf there was even then much 
more of applied muscular force and command than 
gravity in the stroke, but gravity is useful as an 
example in putting and can be shown to develop 
power enough to do what is wanted on the green ; 
but to talk of it as being in any way a considerable 
factor in the iron stroke is merely to make words 
and cloud the issue. If any one thinks otherwise 
swing an iron on a bearing and let gravity do its 
worst to a golf ball by lifting the club to the top 
of the swing and letting it fall against the ball. 
Gravity is a well established and venerable insti- 
tution but the pace of a modern iron shot renders 
it absolutely unnecessary for us to give it any 
place whatever in our consideration of this stroke. 

This is not merely captious criticism. It has a 
basis of very important practical golf behind it. 
If one permits any idea whatever of gravity tak- 
ing any part of the command in the head of the 
club, it stands to reason that the influence of that 



THE NEW GOLF 89 

thought must be in the direction of making the iron 
stroke a sweep, which it most distinctly is not. 
Even James Braid, who in some places goes ' ' right 
out" for the sweep notion, refuses to father it for 
the iron clubs. He says the stroke herein is a hit 
and the player must remember that. 

It is of course of great importance to try to 
regulate your length by the length of your swing. 
It is of equal importance to try always to use the 
same amount of muscular exertion so that you 
may have one constant factor in your play, but 
any idea of leaving any part of the iron stroke to 
''Nature" is surely as futile as waiting about for 
Mother Nature to declare what kind of a putting 
style she means you to use. Moreover, even if one 
does accustom oneself always "to swing to just 
the right length and with always the same amount 
of force applied," the rest is not ''in the hands of 
Nature. ' ' 

These flowery and general statements are of no 
earthly use to any one who is seeking practical as- 
sistance in golf. They annoy me because they are 
so utterly different from what Harry Vardon 
would himself tell one. He would talk golf to one 
in his simple, straightforward, sportsmanlike 
manner. Instead of trying to leave you in the 
gloom with Mother Nature he would tell you that 
after you have obtained control of length and 



90 THE NEW GOLF 

strength of swing there is mucli that remains to 
be done ; and that it mainly depends on your own 
common sense and application, and that if you 
leave it to gravity and Nature you will never he 
able to play an iron shot. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE CLEEK 

There is not mucli difference in the swing for 
the cleek and that in the drive. The main differ- 
ence is perhaps that it is more curtailed. The grip 
is also practically the same. In nsing this club, in- 
deed in all iron clubs, one should grip very firmly 
with both hands. This may seem superfluous ad- 
vice after my emphatic directions on gripping and 
swinging in the drive, but it is impossible to over- 
emphasize the necessity for this with the iron 
clubs. One so often meets with a good deal of 
obstruction at and about the moment of impact 
that unless one's mind is specially prepared to 
fight it one 's grip is found wanting, the club turns 
ever so slightly in the hand, and the stroke is 
ruined. 

In the cleek stroke, more, possibly, than in the 
drive, will be found the importance of my instruc- 
tions as to the distribution of weight at the top of 
the swing. It is of the greatest importance in the 
cleek shot that one keeps down to it. One must 
address the ball with the sole of the club quite 

91 



92 THE NEW GOLF 

parallel with the turf and must see to it that du- 
ring the stroke the club passes the ball in almost 
exactly the same position as that in which it was 
laid to it in the address. Keeping the main por- 
tion of the weight on the left foot in the manner 
described by me is a wonderful assistance in this 
respect. 

This is new doctrine to many players. It has 
already proved the salvation of many. It was 
called revolution when I first taught it. Now, 
many of them are going too far to the other ex- 
treme. Avoid that, for it is almost a worse error. 
In describing the push stroke, one journalist, writ- 
ing a book for some one, says that at the top of 
the swing the weight should be on the left big toe. 
Poor toe! If you have anything from seven to 
fourteen pounds more on your left than on your 
right foot you will be doing better than if the bal- 
ance is the other way. 

James Sherlock weighs less than one hundred 
and forty pounds, or did when we were trying out 
the famous weighing machine experiment in Lon- 
don. At the top of his swing he had about seven 
pounds more on his left leg than on his right. He 
uses his left foot in the manner I advocate. Not 
long ago a writer in America tried to show that 
what I was saying was impractical and was not 
even in accord with Sherlock's own practise. He 



THE NEW GOLF 93 

took a photograph, from Sherlock's own contribu- 
tion to a book on golf which showed Sherlock at 
the top of the swing and the weight very much on 
his right with his left toe merely touching the 
ground. That would have seemed bad but for the 
simple fact that Sherlock learned the truth after 
the hook was published, and assisted in the demon- 
stration willingly although it did — as the American 
writer said — show teaching contrary to that of his 
photograph; but even in that book, Sherlock, in 
his writing, advocates even distribution of weight 
at the top of the swing, and I am satisfied that any- 
one who consistently aims at that will not go far 
wrong; for in that event it will be hard to avoid 
that slight excess which effectually pins one down 
on to the left foot and is so useful, particularly in 
the cleek shot, in assisting one to keep the club 
low down in the impact. 

In playing the cleek shot, as indeed in all strokes 
with iron clubs, it is of the first importance to get 
an easy yet firm action. Firmness and intention 
are of the essence of all iron work. This makes 
one statement of Vardon's about the swing in the 
cleek shot almost incomprehensible to me. He 
says: ''When pivoting on the left toe, the body 
should bend slightly and turn from the waist, the 
head being kept perfectly still. Thus it comes 
about that the golfer 's system appears to be work- 



94 THE NEW GOLF 

ing in three independent sections — first from the 
feet to the hips, next from the hips to the neck, and 
then the head." 

This seems to me to be a most unfortunate idea 
to put into any one's head. In a properly con- 
ceived idea of the cleek stroke it is absolutely im- 
possible to separate the body at the hips into two 
'independent sections." It is the wonderful hip 
movement founded on his fine foot-work, built up 
as I have indicated, that accounts for Var don's 
perfect rhythm in his drive. 

This description of the swing reminds me of a 
golf toy I patented some time ago. I took a figure 
of a golfer addressing the ball and cut him down- 
ward vertically at the neck and the hips. I then 
pivoted the parts together. I was thus enabled 
by drawing back the golfer 's arms to make him put 
by gravity, but when I wanted him to play an iron 
shot his body engaged a spring which found some 
more force. Even in this toy the iron shot wanted 
more than gravity. The head remained still until 
the follow-through, when a pin engaged it and it 
turned forward with the body. After the stroke 
was played the figure behaved very much like many 
human golfers and proceeded to try the stroke 
over again with sundry wags of the head and 
downcast looks, as a matter of fact, quite a natural 



THE NEW GOLF 95 

little golfer except tliat he was divided into 'Hhree 
independent sections. ' ' 

Any attempt to get an idea of "three indepen- 
dent sections" or, so far as that goes, any one 
independent section of the golfer during the cleek 
shot is so bad, so untrue, so unlike real golf that 
it should be discarded utterly. The hip movement, 
instead of separating anything, is the wonderful 
joint that keeps everything together, that allows 
the left knee to go forward and a trifle inward to- 
wards the ball, that permits of the left hip follow- 
ing it and sets up the reciprocal backward move- 
ment of the right hip that tautens and braces the 
right leg to such an extent that, in Vardon's swing, 
the pressure on his right foot tends to be more on 
the right side of it than on the ball of the toe. 

One must avoid any idea of working in indepen- 
dent sections in the golf swing. This same idea 
has been exploited as regards driving. It is bad 
golf and bad mechanics ; moreover, it is somewhat 
of an exaggeration to speak of the head "working" 
as an independent section. It is no doubt per- 
forming its most important function but any one 
who thinks that the rest of his body is working 
independently of his head — and what's in it, or 
ought to be — is perhaps right. He ought to be the 
best judge. But if he is right, let him save his 



96 THE NEW GOLF 

money and time and find some other game, for in 
that event he can never be a golfer. 

I have emphasized the importance of keeping 
down to one 's stroke in the cleek shot. Vardon is 
quite pronounced on this point. He says: ''And 
remember that when you pivot on the left toe, the 
lift that there is here should not spread along to 
the head and shoulders, but should be absorbed, as 
it were, at the waist, which should bend inwards 
and turn round on the hips.*' 

What you must "remember" about this critical 
part of a stroke that troubles so many people for 
a reason they never suspect, wrong foot-work, is 
that the proper "pivoting" (as it is so commonly 
mis-called) has no "lift" whatever in it so that 
there is nothing whatever to "be absorbed, as it 
were, at the waist. ' ' The proper foot-work, which 
I so minutely explain, tends to do the opposite 
to lifting one away from the ball. It really is the 
most wonderful cure for this very bad mistake as 
it keeps one pinned down to one's work. 



CHAPTER VIII 

DKIVING 

The drive in golf as played by the most finished 
players, really is a somewhat complex stroke. 
Without in any way joining the ranks of those who 
seem to see something mysterious in everything 
associated with golf I may go so far as to admit 
this. 

Whether it is necessary or even advisable for 
the vast majority of golfers to attempt to mold 
their form on that of Braid, Vardon, Taylor, Ray, 
and Duncan, some one or a composite of all, I am 
not prepared here to argue. It must be remem- 
bered that these great players came into the game 
when they were very young and that use is second 
nature with them. Obviously it would be futile 
for some one over middle age, very stout and short, 
to try to start golf with a swing like Vardon 's. 
It is practically a certainty that for such a person 
a much shorter swing and much less foot and ankle 
work would be advisable. Our duty here, however, 
is to go into the question of driving and to en- 
deavor to make this somewhat complicated opera- 



98 THE NEW GOLF 

tion seem as simple as it should to any one who will 
take the trouble to master it in detail. 

Stance and address. 

''Stance" means in golf the way in which one 
stands in relation to the ball as one puts one's club 
down near the ball preparatory to hitting it. 

In addressing the ball one usually rests the club 
on the ground close to the ball and behind it. This 
is not permitted when the ball is in a hazard. The 
club may not then be grounded. 

The stance which is most generally favored now 
is what is called the ''open" stance. This means 
that in facing the ball the player's left foot has a 
greater tendency to point towards the hole than in 
the square stance which was formerly most popu- 
lar. In the square stance, still used by many good 
golfers, the player stands so that a line across 
his toes would be nearly parallel to the line from 
the ball to the hole. 

The consensus of opinion and the practise of 
experts undoubtedly points to a moderately open 
stance as being the most generally serviceable. 
Here again, as elsewhere, I strongly advise the 
continual examination of photographs of the best 
players. Imitation is probably the best way to 
learn any game so far as regards the actual play- 
ing of the stroke. Unless, however, one knows a 



THE NEW GOLF 99 

good deal of the reason for the positions that one 
is imitating one will lose a very great amount of 
time. The ideal way to learn golf is to get the 
analysis of the motions and the reasons from the 
book and then watch these being translated into 
action, not by one, but by dozens, of the leading 
players. This will be inconvenient for many peo- 
ple. The next best thing is to see all the photo- 
graphs one can. One will not realize for some 
time how much benefit one is deriving from this 
method, but it is bound to make itself felt. In- 
sensibly the outstanding points of importance im- 
press themselves on one's mind and are finally 
incorporated in one's game. 

This will not come to pass without intelligent 
effort and critical examination and comparison; 
but with these there is no doubt of the benefit to 
be obtained from photographs. Let me give an 
illustration. One of the commonest, and ugliest, 
faults of players is turning on the point of the 
left toe at the top of the swing and presenting the 
heel to the hole. If one has any idea of ever 
getting to know what rhythm means one must 
watch this left heel. After one has seen a dozen 
or two photographs and has compared the posi- 
tions of the left heel at the top of the swing one 
will very thoroughly have learned the position in 
which it should be and probably much else of im- 



100 THE NEW GOLF 

portance about wliat the left foot is doing at this 
time. 

The ball is generally addressed so that it is 
roughly speaking opposite the left eye. Some 
books give one the measurements in feet and 
inches. This cannot successfully be done. No two 
people ''come at" a ball in the same way. This 
really is a case where one requires to let the pupil 
assert his ''individuality," provided always that 
he does not immediately proceed to outrage Nature 
instead of trying to support the theory that she 
has especially interested herself in the production 
of golf strokes. 

Another way of indicating the relative position 
of the player to the ball in the drive is by saying 
that if a line were drawn from the ball towards 
the player at a right angle to the line to the hole 
it would run six to eight inches behind the player's 
left heel. Even this must be taken as a general 
indication. There is nothing worse than getting it 
into one's mind that one must take up some par- 
ticular attitude, for the truth about the golf stroke 
is far removed from that. It must be the most 
natural, unconstrained thing that my teaching and 
your thought and practise can produce or you will 
not get the enjoyment from it that you should. 

It must be remembered that in this chapter on 
driving I am writing of the driver and the brassy. 



THE NEW GOLF loi 

for, generally speaking, what applies to one applies 
equally to the other. 

In addressing the ball one must endeavor so to 
regulate one's distance from it that one can hit 
it with a free easy swing without having to over- 
reach, as this, of course, must tend to inaccuracy. 
On the other hand it is almost a worse fault to get 
too close to the ball, as this is quite fatal to good 
driving. It is only natural that it will take some 
little time for the beginner to find out his right 
position and, even when he is assisted by a pro- 
fessional, he need not expect to get it all at once. 
This is another case where sometimes the hard 
letter of the law must be relaxed to allow for per- 
sonal idiosyncrasy. The main thing to be kept in 
mind, or rather to be assimilated, stowed away in 
the pigeon-holes of the mind and sub-consciously 
used, is that, so far as regards this particular 
matter, there is a lot of centrifugal force behind 
the head of a driver in the golf swing and that one 
should allow just so much as is necessary for the 
consequent swinging out of the club head. To cor- 
rect this swinging out some golfers, without know- 
ing why they do it, address the ball with the toe 
of the club. This is not to be recommended as a 
general practice. One should always address the 
ball, as nearly as possible, as one intends to return 
to it. 



102 THE NEW GOLF 

At the address the weight of the body should, 
as nearly as possible, be distributed equally be- 
tween the legs. This again is one of those im- 
portant things which nevertheless can be dismissed 
from one's mind almost as soon as one is told 
about it. It is so natural that having done it once 
or twice it will never occur to any one to do any- 
thing else. So, indeed, is it with the address. 
Nine of ten persons if given a driver and told to 
drive a ball would, so far as the relative position 
of feet and ball is concerned, take up a fairly good 
square stance. The alteration from this position 
to the open stance is very easy and is not un- 
natural. 

The waggle. 

If some journalist writing a book for a great 
golfer had made him say that Mother Nature had 
allotted to each golfer a special kind of waggle, 
and that herein lay the greatest display of indi- 
viduality in any portion of this great game, I am 
afraid that I should not have been courageous 
enough to contradict him. I have no evidence to 
offer in rebuttal; and the fearful and wonderful 
and protracted efforts of some of the poor souls, 
whose main idea seems to be to put off the evil 
moment, would certainly be taken by many as 
strong corroborative testimony. To put it bru- 



THE NEW GOLF 103 

tally but graphically, the waggle is with far too 
many players and would-be players a compound of 
moral cowardice and ignorance. 

I know this sounds unkind. One does not love 
the dentist or the surgeon while the forceps or the 
knife is doing its work — but afterwards, when the 
pang is over one can properly appreciate his ef- 
forts. Now, how is this defective waggling to be 
remedied. 

It cannot be denied that the waggle is an im- 
portant part of the golf stroke. Everybody does 
it, some more and some less, mostly more — espe- 
cially when they are in front of us. 

Now, if I were not dealing strictly with the 
science and practise of golf I might write a book 
on the '' psychology" of the waggle, for unques- 
tionably the waggle has a *' psychology" of its 
own ; yet I have heard of a man who went hunting 
the mystery of golf and never even saw the waggle, 
the most mysterious thing in golf. The waggle of 
most golfers has much in it whose reason and use 
are as recondite as the functions of the vermiform 
appendix, yet with this virgin field at their feet, 
or their agile pens, the golf scribes have passed 
heedlessly on. 

To be perfectly serious, it is curious that this 
portion of the stroke has never received any real 
attention except in the solitary case in which I 



104 THE NEW GOLF 

illustrated George Duncan's waggle by diagram- 
matic photographs. Duncan's waggle is, however, 
the quickest in professional golf and, so far as my 
experience goes, in golf. There is nothing super- 
fluous in it. He comes up to his ball as it lies on 
the fair green. As he approaches it he " sizes up ' ' 
his shot. He settles easily and naturally to the 
ball, swings his club head up so that his forearms 
and the club are in one line pointing away to the 
hole, his upper arms hanging easily and naturally, 
and then allows the club head to sink quickly to 
rest behind the ball. Then he picks the club up so 
that the head rises up about fifteen inches and 
goes forward, in a gradual curve during the last 
six inches of its rise, until it momentarily stops 
about six inches forward of the ball ; from here it 
sweeps backward and downward, nearly all the 
time in line with the hole, until after moving about 
three feet it comes to a stop for a fraction of a sec- 
ond at about a foot from the turf. From here it 
moves quickly, but smoothly, back to the ball, hesi- 
tates half an inch behind it and three inches from 
the turf, then sinks rapidly to the ground immedi- 
ately behind the ball. 

Although this takes a few words to describe it is 
over in a flash, yet it is performed without the sem- 
blance of a jerk. No more is necessary for a wag- 



THE NEW GOLF 105 

gle. Duncan has shown us that. To attempt to 
use less would probably be a mistake. 

Now here again is an instance where we must 
be broad-minded, or human, enough to allow our 
player some little latitude. To insist on so short 
a waggle as this would ruin the stroke of many 
players, but I am prepared to use Duncan's ex- 
tremely short and rapid waggle as a lesson to those 
who waste their own time, and that of countless 
players, in an effort to hypnotize the ball by weird 
and useless wavings of the club, about three quar- 
ters of which, instead of being any assistance, are 
a positive detriment and calculated to put one off 
making any kind of a decent shot. 

The use of a waggle is to enable one to ''loosen 
up" to the ball and to make the same motion, as 
nearly as one can in such a gentle way, as will be 
made in returning to the ball in the stroke. Thus 
it will be seen that all motions which take the club 
off the line to the hole and that line produced 
through the ball should, so far as possible, be 
avoided. If this be remembered and acted on, it 
will increase the capacity of our links wonderfully, 
for it will cut out an immense number of useless 
geometrical figures that are indulged in by those 
who stand in fear and trembling, making signs to 
the fetich of the waggle in the hope of propitiating 



io6 THE NEW GOLF 

the divinity who presides over the mystery of golf, 
instead of cutting the mischievous little interloper 
off short, to the benefit of their game and the in- 
creased enjoyment of their fellow creatures. 

In rifle shooting the first time you see the center 
is the time to let off. In golf, the first time you 
feel easy and right after settling down to your 
ball is the time to smite it. Procrastination in this 
connection is the thief of accuracy — and of your 
fellow-members' golf. 

It would not matter so much if it were only your 
own time; but think of the string of unfortunate 
persons you are holding up behind you, merely for 
the purpose of confirming or increasing a bad 
habit. You will then probably decide to curtail 
your waggle by at least fifty per cent., which is 
about the average amount that could be cut off the 
waggle, not only without detriment but with posi- 
tive benefit. 

The left foot. 

We have finished with the waggle and we are 
now back to the ball firmly and comfortably settled 
in the address. In the ordinary course I should 
now take you through the upward swing, but I have 
so much to say about the left foot that I must rivet 
your attention on it while the swing is being played. 
In the meantime you must not worry about what is 



THE NEW GOLF 107 

going on, and how it is being performed. You 
must give all the attention you can spare to the left 
foot, for believe me, it has been neglected and ma- 
ligned and robbed in the past, and if you wish to 
make your game what it should be you must see 
that it gets justice. 

The first thing that happens with the left foot in 
the upward swing is that the left heel leaves the 
ground. This does not in any way depend on the 
pull of the arms as is so often stated. It is not 
postponed until the club gets four or five feet 
from the ball. It starts when it is four or five 
inches from it, if not contemporaneously with its 
leaving the ball, if the stroke is played with true 
rhythm. The left heel continues to rise gradually 
and smoothly until it reaches the highest point 
from the earth at the top of the swing. 

Now we have to consider how it rises. This 
may seem at first like an excess of analysis. It 
really is not so ; and a proper understanding of it 
is the key, or one of the keys, to the most beautiful 
movement in golf, the proper loin and hip-work 
that is used by Harry Vardon, the finest stroke 
player in the world. 

Quite ninety per cent, of players go wrong right 
here. Directly the heel rises from the ground, 
which quite frequently it does too late for true 
rhythm, they turn the foot in sideways so that the 



io8 THE NEW GOLF 

pressure is all on one side of the sole of the foot — 
say, roughly, on a ^trip an inch wide and running 
from the ball of the big toe to the end of the toe. 
In order that there may be no mistake about this, 
James Braid in How to Play Golf gives a diagram 
of the sole of the shoe showing this strip. 

This is bad golf. The pressure should be right 
across the front part of the foot in a line with the 
place where the toes join the foot ; in fact, on the 
full breadth of the forward part of the foot. 
There should be no idea of "pivoting" on the left 
big toe. This word has been responsible for a 
vast amount of bad golf. It is thoroughly mis- 
leading. The left foot might be nailed through 
the toes across in a line with the ball of the big 
toe for all the "pivoting" it does in the golf stroke. 

The left foot does undoubtedly assist the left 
knee in bending in toward the hall. Mark, not 
"toward the right leg," as one is usually told. 
This however we shall deal with later. The as- 
sistance given by the left foot in this respect is of 
a nature that has never been correctly set out by 
the great golfers. It comes mainly from a side 
bend of the ankle and a slight twisting of the foot 
at and about the instep. This movement should 
be most carefully studied, as on its proper per- 
formance rests the soundness of one's base at the 
top of the swing. 



THE NEW GOLF 109 

We have seen now that in the upward swing the 
left heel leaves the ground immediately the club 
leaves the ball. It continues to rise as the club 
goes up and at the same time the ankle joint turns 
inwards and the instep twists over a little. While 
this is taking place the left foot remains firmly 
planted on the ground with the weight that is on 
it, which will be considered in due course, dis- 
tributed right across the foot, which does not in 
any sense of the word ''pivot" or change from the 
position it was in relative to the line of flight of 
the ball. In fact, so that there may be no possible 
misunderstanding about it, I shall say plainly that 
the front third of the left foot is nailed to the earth 
for all the movement up, down or sideways that 
there is in it. 

I have referred to the common error of pointing 
the left heel toward the hole at the top of the swing. 
This is a fault to which all those who indulge in 
"pivoting" are prone. The heel should rise and 
fall above its original position or practically so. 
It will be obvious that if the movement is properly 
made as indicated the heel will at the top of the 
swing be slightly farther away from the hole than 
in the address, but in no case must it be turned so 
that it goes nearer to the hole ; in fact if the front 
part of the foot be kept firmly and properly placed 
the heel also must remain in its proper position. 



no THE NEW GOLF 

In tlie downward swing the motions here de- 
scribed are reversed, and at the finish the left foot 
is firmly planted on the ground, as in the address, 
and the player finishes his drive slightly across the 
foot. This will receive due attention in its place. 

The left leg. 

The next portion of the body that we must con- 
sider is the left leg. Directly the left heel leaves 
the ground the left leg bends inwards at the knee 
in the direction of the ball. All books tell one that 
it bends in toward the right leg. This it never 
does, for a very simple yet all sufficient reason : it 
cannot bend that way! It was never intended to 
do so, and it will not. If any one doubts my state- 
ment let the experiment be made. 

The truth is that the movement of the left knee 
is toward the ball. The knee only goes toward 
the right leg, when the stroke is properly played, 
so far as the bend of the left ankle joint and the 
turn of the left instep will allow it. If there is no 
attempt to overdo these natural actions one re- 
tains one's firm base right across the left foot at 
the toes and the ''pad" of the foot, and has a solid 
foundation at the top of the swing, together with 
full command of the left leg, instead of a totally 
insecure foothold and such an unnatural position 
of the knee that all the weight is thrown onto the 



THE NEW GOLF iii 

right leg and the rhythm of the swing irretrievably- 
ruined. We may now for a time leave the left leg 
and see what has been happening to its companion. 

The right leg". 

While all this has been happening, the right leg 
has not moved except torsionally. Here, I am 
afraid, I must allow some other portions of the 
anatomy to intrude on my sectional analysis, but 
I shall only do that in so far as I cannot keep 
them out, for I have a very definite object in con- 
sidering each portion of the machinery by itself. 

As the left knee moves in towards the ball it nat- 
urally pulls the left hip joint after it. The twist- 
ing movement of the body, commonly mis-called 
rotation, is supposed to take place with the spine 
as an axis. It follows then that this pulling for- 
ward of the left hip joint throws backward the 
right hip joint. As the right foot is planted firmly 
for its full length on the earth now and until some 
time after the top of the swing is reached, it fol- 
lows that the right leg is twisted at the top of the 
swing. 

It is this torsional strain that has been mistaken 
for weight and that has led to the great mistake 
made by the most famous professionals and 
writers in this most vital matter. 

Now without considering the hands or arms we 



112 THE NEW GOLF 

have arrived at the top of the swing; and let me 
say now that although I have never even thought 
of teaching the drive this way in practise, it would 
probably be much sounder and productive of better 
results than the methods generally used. 

The weight at the top of the swing. 

We have now to consider a position of the very 
greatest importance in the golf swing. Certainly 
our player has arrived at it without arms or hands 
or a club. This in the ordinary way would no 
doubt be some slight handicap. It will, I think, 
make the task I have here if anything easier and 
my argument clearer, for our golfer is in effect a 
lump of material, — let us say, lead — supported on 
two legs of — say, iron. 

Now we must see what the great players have to 
say about this question of the weight at the top of 
the swing, for it is not going too far to say that 
this is a matter that strikes at the very root of the 
game, that is actually a fundamental, that is a 
matter of principle, that admits of no paltering or 
equivocation. It is a question that has to be de- 
cided, on the evidence supplied to him, by every 
golfer who desires to know and to play real golf. 
Therefore it is a question worthy of close analysis. 

So important do" I consider this matter that it 
seems to me that if one teaches this incorrectly it 



THE NEW GOLF 113 

does not matter what else one teaches correctly. 
False teaching here strikes at the very heart of the 
game. 

Vardon, on page 68 of The Complete Golfer, 
says: ''The movements of the feet and legs are 
important. In addressing the ball you stand with 
both feet flat and squarely placed on the ground, 
the weight equally divided between them, and the 
knees so slightly bent at the knee joints as to make 
the bending scarcely noticeable. This position is 
maintained during the upward movement of the 
club until the arms begin to pull at the body. The 
easiest and most natural thing to do then, and the 
one which suggests itself, is to raise the heel of 
the left foot and begin to pivot on the left toe, 
which allows the arms to proceed with their up- 
lifting process without let or hindrance. Do not 
begin to pivot on this left toe ostentatiously or be- 
cause you feel you ought to do so, but only when 
you know that the time has come, and you want to, 
and do it only to such an extent that the club can 
reach the full extent of the swing without any dif- 
ficulty. 

''While this is happening it follows that the 
weight of the body is being gradually thrown on 
to the right leg, which gradually stiffens, until at 
the top of the swing it is quite rigid, the left being 
at the same time in a state of comparative free- 



114 THE NEW GOLF 

dom, sligMly bent in towards the right, with only 
just enough pressure on the toe to keep it in posi- 
tion." 

This is Vardon's considered opinion on this im- 
portant matter. 

On page 53 of Great Golfers, he says, speaking 
of the Downward Swing: *'In commencing the 
downward swing I try to feel that both hands and 
wrists are working together. The wrists start 
bringing the club down, and at the same moment, 
the left knee commences to resume its original po- 
sition. The head during this time has been kept 
quite still, the body alone pivoting from the hips." 

We must notice carefully that ''The head dur- 
ing this time" — that is during the whole of the 
time from the address to the top of the swing — 
''has been quite still," and that the correct posi- 
tion at the finish of the backward or upward swing 
is obtained by "the body alone pivoting from the 
hips." 

Analyzing these instructions we find: 

1. That at the address the weight is equally di- 
vided between the feet. 

2. That during the swing the head must be kept 
quite still. 

3. That the pivoting of the body must be done 
at the hips. 



THE NEW GOLF 115 

4. That there is no change in the position of the 
right foot. 

Therefore, we start with the weight equally dis- 
tributed between the feet. We are held as in a 
vise so far as backward movement, or movement 
away from the hole, is concerned, at three points, 
the right foot, the right hip and the head, yet at the 
top of the swing all the weight of the body has in 
some mysterious manner got onto the right leg ! 

James Braid makes the same statement about 
the weight at the top of the swing. On page 56 of 
Advanced Golf he says : ''At the top of the swing, 
although nearly all the weight will be on the right 
foot, the player must feel a distinct pressure on 
the left one, that is to say, it must still be doing a 
small share in the work of supporting the body. ' ' 

We have J. H. Taylor also as a subscriber to 
this idea. On page 207 of Taylor on Golf he says : 
''Then as the club comes back in the swing, the 
weight should be shifted by degrees, quietly and 
gradually, until when the club has reached its top- 
most point the whole weight of the body is sup- 
ported by the right leg, the left foot at this time 
being turned, and the left knee bent in towards the 
right leg. Next, as the club is taken back to the 
horizontal position behind the head, the shoulders 
should be swung around, although the head must 



ii6 THE NEW GOLF 

be allowed to remain in the same position with the 
eyes looking over the left shoulder." 

Mr. Walter J. Travis in Practical Golf says: 
**In the upward swing it will be noticed that the 
body has been turned very freely with the natural 
transference of weight almost entirely to the right 
foot, and that the left foot has been pulled up and 
around on the toe. Without such aid the down- 
ward stroke would be lacking in pith. ' ' 

Mr. Travis makes it very clear that his idea of 
the drive in golf is that one must get on to one's 
right leg at the top of one 's swing if one wants to 
get ' ' pith ' ' in one 's drive. 

Mr. Horace Hutchinson on page 88 of Golf in 
the Badminton Series says: ''Now, as the club 
came to the horizontal behind the head, the body 
will have been allowed to turn, gently, with its 
weight upon the right foot. ' ^ 

Surely this is a mass of authority in favor of 
the right foot. I am presenting it all here because 
I know that I must face it. I am diametrically 
opposed to this teaching ; and when you have read 
what I have said, and have tested it, you must elect 
whether you intend to remain true to the fetiches 
of tradition or to become a disciple of The New 
Golf. 

There is no possible doubt of the rooted nature 
of this false idea. The greatest writers and play- 



THE NEW GOLF 117 

ers emphasize it over and over again. James 
Braid is particularly emphatic about it. In How 
to Play Golf he says: ^'When the swing is well 
started, that is to say, when the club has been 
taken a matter of about a couple of feet from the 
ball, it will become impossible, or at least incon- 
venient and uncomfortable to keep the feet so 
firmly planted on the ground as they were when 
the address was made. It is the left one that 
wants to move, and consequently at this stage you 
must allow it to pivot. By this is meant that the 
heel is raised slightly, and the foot turns over 
until only the ball of it rests on the ground. Many 
players pivot on the toe, but I think this is not so 
safe, and does not preserve the balance so well. 
When this pivoting begins, the weight is being 
taken off the left leg and transferred almost en- 
tirely to the right, and at the same moment the left 
knee turns in towards the right toe. The right leg 
then stiffens a little and the right heel is more 
firmly than ever planted on the ground. ' ' 

This matter is vital to the playing of the swing. 
I am charging plainly that all the current teaching 
about it is false and misleading and calculated to 
injure, instead of to improve, one's game; there- 
fore I must be most specific and analytical in con- 
demning fundamental teaching so strongly re- 
enforced as this is. 



ii8 THE NEW GOLF 

I may say, however, that it seems to me that the 
famous golfers and writers, for I have not quoted 
the half of those who preach this doctrine, have 
a fairly stiff mechanical problem to deal with in 
the exposition I have already given. I shall how- 
ever try to make it a little stronger. 

Even those with a very slight knowledge of golf 
are aware that swaying is a bad fault. Swaying 
means drawing the body away from the hole in 
making the stroke. Vardon is most emphatic 
about this. He says : ' ^ In the upward movement 
of the club the body must pivot from the waist 
alone and there must be no swaying, not even to 
the extent of an inch. ' ' 

We are all familiar with the instructions given 
by nearly every man who has put his name to a golf 
book, namely, to make the spine the ' ' axis ' ' of the 
twisting movement. One writer (I am almost sure 
that it is J. H. Taylor) explains that the twisting 
takes place on an imaginary axis consisting of a 
rod of iron coinciding with the spine and contin- 
uing until it buries itself in the ground. We thus 
get a very vivid idea of the importance attached 
to there being no movement away from the hole 
during the swing, but if we start with our weight 
equally distributed and twist round on our iron 
spine how can we possibly get all, or indeed any 



THE NEW GOLF 119 

more of it than was originally there, on to the right 
foot? I must leave some one else to answer this 
question. As a matter of fact it cannot be done. 
The instructions given are quite faulty. It might 
— I say it might — be good golf to have all one's 
weight on the right foot at the top of the swing, 
but there is nothing more certain on earth than 
that it cannot be put there hy the means described 
in nearly every book on golf. 

We have settled fairly conclusively that the 
weight at the top of the swing cannot go on to the 
right leg. We must now inquire where it does go. 
The answer to this is simple, natural and practical 
as everything in good golf should be. For all prac- 
tical purposes we may say that the weight at the 
top of the swing is equally divided between the 
legs. That is the best, the simplest, and the most 
natural idea for the golfer to get into his mind. 
He must at the top of his swing keep himself so 
that his weight remains distributed as it was at the 
address. 

This is the idea, the practical idea, that entails 
no thought, no special attention, after one has 
properly absorbed it, yet it will carry one farther 
than the equal distribution of weight, as it should 
do. It will in fact put sHghtly more weight on the 
left foot than on the right, but the player will not 



120 THE NEW GOLF 

have to cumber his mind with this operation. It 
comes about naturally of itself when once the fun- 
damentals have sunk into one's mind. 

My readers must remember that we have arrived 
at the top of the swing, my lay figure merely a 
leaden body with two iron legs, placed as in the 
address at golf. All told the figure weighs say 
one hundred pounds. The legs are resting on two 
separate scales each of which shows a weight of 
fifty pounds. Let us now take a hammer and 
knock in the left ''knee" so that it bends in toward 
the ball, and then see what has happened. Nat- 
urally the figure has tilted over a little to the left, 
that is toward the hole. Naturally also there is 
now more weight on the left "leg" for the short- 
ening of the prop under the weight by bending it 
has brought more of the weight forward, and the 
left leg is shortened by being bent, despite the fact 
of the left heel being raised. 

From all of which it will be seen that in a well- 
executed drive at golf, instead of drawing weight 
away from the hole at the top of the swing, the 
player either keeps it as it was, or advances it 
slightly toward the hole. It must be remembered, 
however, that advancing one 's weight towards the 
hole does not necessarily mean moving one's body 
forward. One's head may have been kept per- 
fectly still and yet heavier portions of the body 



THE NEW GOLF 121 

may have been twisted just over the dividing line. 

At the top of the swing the left foot should un- 
doubtedly carry a little more of the weight than 
the right. This was proved at the historic de- 
monstration that I gave to the Golfers and the 
Press of the World at the West End School of Golf, 
Piccadilly, London. 

I had made to my order two scales, each weigh- 
ing up to two hundred pounds. These were placed 
close together. The golfer took his stance with 
his weight equally divided. A lever which op- 
erated a pointer on a measure graduated to quar- 
ter inches was put within a fraction of an inch of 
his hip. One also curved in and came up close 
to his neck so that it did not interfere with his 
drive. We now had him with his weight equally 
distributed and he had to play his stroke so that 
it all got on to his right leg without disturbing 
either of the levers. I offered Braid, Taylor and 
Vardon two hundred and fifty dollars each if they 
could prove their theories to be practical golf. By 
this time, however, they had come to see the mis- 
taken idea in the prevalent teaching. 

James Sherlock and other famous golfers tried 
the machine. I offered Sherlock a hundred and 
twenty-five dollars on the spot if he could do what 
we are combating as false teaching. He got on 
the machine and tried in every possible way to get 



122 THE NEW GOLF 

that money. Finally he got down and, ''It's no 
use; it can't be done." To which I replied, "You 
may be fairly sure I knew that before I offered you 
a hundred and twenty-five dollars." 

This machine is regarded as such a valuable 
means of instruction that the West End School of 
Golf would not sell it to a friend of mine who 
wanted one for New York so he had to get a dupli- 
cate made. If there is any lingering doubt in 
any one's mind now as to whether the teaching of 
the new golf is sound or not in this vital point I 
shall be glad to arrange for a demonstration in 
New York similar to that given in London. 

In Great Golfers, speaking of his stance and 
address, Vardon says: "I stand firmly with the 
weight rather on the right leg. ' ' Later on speak- 
ing of the top of the swing he says : ' ' There is dis- 
tinct pressure of the left toe and very little more 
weight should be felt on the right leg than there 
was when the ball was addressed. ' ' 

Unfortunately this was published long before 
the statements of Vardon which I have already 
quoted. Personally I believe that if it were put 
up to him to-day he would abide by the last quoted 
statement, but we cannot of course decide that. 
We merely have to take his written word as we 
find it and deal with that. 

We have now got to the top of our swing, minus 



THE NEW GOLF 123 

our head and our arms. So far we have been able 
to do very well without them for they would only 
have been in our way. We have been considering 
things that were nearer to the foundation of the 
swing — things which literally are the foundation. 
Take, for instance, this question of resting 
squarely across the full width of the left foot. I 
have brought you now to see that more weight 
should be on the left foot than there is on the right 
at the top of the swing. Does it not then follow 
that you must have a firm and solid base for the 
foot which takes such an important part in the 
drive ? 

Never in the bibliography of golf has the impor- 
tance of this point been adequately impressed on 
golfers and learners. I had written Modern Golf 
and The Soul of Golf before I came to realize that 
it is primarily from this that Harry Vardon gets 
his rhythm. 

The arms in the upward swing. 

There is no mystery about what the arms and 
wrists do in the upward swing. I have spoken of 
the press forward. This is not an essential, but 
I do believe that it is useful. The hands are ad- 
vanced so that they go forward of the ball a few 
inches just before the club is raised from the 
ground. It does, I think, tend to stop the hands 



124 THE NEW GOLF 

getting away before the club head; moreover it 
feels comfortable. The next thing is to pick your 
club up naturally, holding it tightly with both 
hands, and to hit the ball, still holding it tightly 
with both hands. 

Of course there is a good deal that goes on in 
the meantime, but one of the greatest secrets of 
successful driving is to avoid monkeying round 
with your grip while you are making the stroke. 
The grip with which you left the ball is the grip 
with which you want to return to it. There must 
be no thought of any modification of it, any loosen 
ing up here or tightening there, giving the fore- 
finger a holiday here and the thumb there. Cut 
out all that nonsense, for your grip is your grip, 
and, once having taken it, you must abide by it. 

There is another advantage in holding firmly to 
the shaft when once one has got the right grip. It 
does not give one so much chance to use the wrist 
wrongly, which is an outstanding fault with begin- 
ners, especially those who change their grip as the 
club is going up or coming down. Moreover it 
tends to prevent over swinging which comes so 
naturally to those who loosen up and lose control 
of the club at that most critical point, the top of the 
swing. 

Having taken a firm hold of the club with both 
hands, swing it easily and naturally back until it 



THE NEW GOLF 125 

readies a horizontal position behind your head and 
within a few inches of your neck. When you get 
up to this position you will still have a firm hold 
of the club, it will be pointing towards the hole, 
the shaft being nearly parallel to the line from the 
ball to the hole and the toe of it will be hanging 
down towards the earth and slightly nearer the line 
of flight than the heel. 

Now, in bringing the club up to this position 
you have used a good deal of what is called wrist 
action, only it is not wrist action. You have 
turned your forearms. Some people call it the 
roll of the forearm. Those who want you to think 
they know a lot about anatomy talk of pronation 
and supination. The roll of the forearm will do 
for us. 

If you have allowed your forearms to roll nat- 
urally, you will find when you get to the top of the 
swing that your wrists are underneath the shaft 
of the club, and in such a position that if your club 
were an ax, you could strike a good hefty blow at 
a block of wood in a line with your right shoulder 
and about four feet away from it. This is a good 
test of the position of the wrists. Remember, that 
although you want to strike the ball in front of 
you, you develop your power precisely as though 
you were hitting that block of wood. You must 
not try to get to the ball by a quicker route than 



126 THE NEW GOLF 

the natural track of the club head which is very 
nearly a circle. Do not cramp either of the arms, 
particularly the right. Hugging the ribs with the 
right elbow was once a fetich. Avoid it. Nobody 
ever saw Vardon do it, and his style is as good as 
any to go by, particularly as his swing is of the up- 
right variety and therefore the safest and best for 
golf, as the club head remains much longer in the 
line of flight than in the flatter swing of some play- 
ers. I have never been able to see any advantage 
in a flat swing. I have never seen any advantage 
claimed for it by any one entitled to speak with 
authority; and those famous professionals who 
use it do not advocate it in preference to the up- 
right swing, which I feel sure is most suited to the 
great majority of players and in the long run the 
best for the game. 

It is usual to instruct the beginners to carry the 
club back straight from the ball, as far as one can 
conveniently, until one's arms pull it off the line. 
It is doubtful if there is any advantage in this. 
Probably one v/ould get just as good results by 
letting the head of the club take care of itself and 
forgetting all about this. It is a certainty that on 
the return journey the club does not follow this 
path, and, personally, I am inclined to think that 
this part of the stroke may well be forgotten. As 
a matter of fact the more one sees of golf the more 



THE NEW GOLF 127 

one realizes what an astounding number of things 
there are that one can with much profit, directly 
one addresses one 's ball — forget. 

It is customary to attempt to tell one where this 
alleged ''wrist action," this roll of the forearms — 
comes in. Any one who strives to put it in at any 
particular point either going up or coming down 
may just as well give up golf and look for some 
other game. It is a perfectly natural movement 
distributed over practically the whole ''journey" 
of the forearms. It cannot be assigned to any par- 
ticular place. If one grips one's club properly, 
and maintains one's grip, it will have to come in in 
its right place. This is another action which is so 
perfectly natural that it may soon be left to take 
care of itself. 

The downward swing*. 

I purposely brought my readers up to the top 
of the swing by sections. Going down I may not 
retain that plan in its entirety. It is not so neces- 
sary. I am of opinion that arriving at the correct 
position at the top of the swing is of the utmost 
importance. I think that if a player achieves that 
he has an excellent chance for the rest of the stroke. 

I am frequently asked how the downward swing 
is started. I am making in this book a statement 
about it that is, so far as my knowledge of golf 



128 THE NEW GOLF 

and golf writing goes, new, but I believe that it is 
sound. The downward swing in a drive of perfect 
rhythm is, I believe, started by the player's body 
before the upward swing is completed hy the club 
having dropped to its lowest point. The player's 
body is starting to ''unwind," to use the term so 
often employed by writers, before the upward 
swing of the club is finished. I am inclined to 
think that this is to a great extent the reason that 
there is less apparent conflict of motion, less jerki- 
ness than one might expect, at this point. I have 
mentioned this idea to one player of great experi- 
ence and ability and he agrees with me that it is 
as I say. Personally I should like to experiment 
and investigate a little more before pronouncing 
authoritatively on this interesting point. I may 
say, however, that the motion pictures of the 
famous players seem to lend color to my idea. In 
many cases they show a considerable breadth of 
the back before the club has got to the lowest point 
and by the time the club has reached the lowest 
point they are showing much less of the back. 
This, it seems to me, upholds my idea. 

Whether this is so or not there is, I think, no 
doubt that the body starts the downward swing. 
I have read a good deal about the ''hands lead- 
ing." I should have to reorganize all my ideas, 
not only of golf, but of almost every other sport, if 



THE NEW GOLF 129 

this were correct. It is the body that starts nearly 
every analogous movement in athletics, and the 
drive in golf is not a law unto itself. 

Now again I am going to throw my readers to a 
great extent on their own resources. I am not 
going to make any attempt to tell them how to 
''divide up" the downward stroke so far as re- 
gards the arm action. If the ball were a daisy 
one would not want such instruction. Why should 
one require it because what one is aiming at hap- 
pens to be a golf ball. The stroke is a most per- 
fectly natural reversal of the upward movement 
with the roll of the fore-arms again distributed. It 
is quite futile to attempt to tell any one ''where the 
wrists come in, ' ' because nobody can do it. Even 
James Braid has confessed that he does not know. 

Harry Vardon is not a believer in the idea of 
wrist action. At page 70 of The Complete Golfer 
he says : ' ' Now pay attention to the wrists. They 
should be held fairly tightly. If the club is held 
tightly the wrists will be tight, and vice versa. 
When the wrists are tight there is little play in 
them and more is demanded of the arms. I do not 
believe in the long ball coming from the wrists. 
In defiance of principles which are accepted in 
many quarters, I will go so far as to say that, 
except in putting, there is no pure wrist shot in 
golf. Some players attempt to play their short 



130 THE NEW GOLF 

approach with their wrists as they have been told 
to do. These men are likely to remain at long 
handicaps for a long time. Similarly there is a 
kind of a superstition that the elect among drivers 
get in some peculiar kind of 'snap' — a mo- 
mentary forward pushing movement — ^with their 
wrists at the time of impact, and that it is this 
wrist work at the critical period which gives the 
grand length to their drives, those extra twenty 
or thirty yards which make the stroke look so 
splendid, so uncommon, and which make the next 
shot so much easier. Generally speaking, the 
wrists, when held firmly, will take very good care 
of themselves. ' ' 

I am glad to be able to quote Vardon in demol- 
ishing the absurd idea of the long driver getting 
his power from his wrists. Whenever any one 
speaks like that it nearly always means, if one only 
knew it, from the forearms. Trying to put one's 
wrists into the downward stroke is fatal to ac- 
curacy for any one who tries to do it at the wrong 
time. Any particular thing of value that the 
wrists do they do at the beginning of the down- 
ward swing. Except as a connecting joint they 
have gone out of business long before the ball is 
reached. 

Braid says: "Where exactly the wrists begin 
to do their proper work I have never been able to 



THE NEW GOLF 131 

determine exactly, for the work is almost instan- 
taneously brief!" Well, if Braid does as well as 
he does without knowing anything about where the 
wrists come in, the ordinary golfer may take heart 
of grace and reflect that it cannot be absolutely 
necessary for one to know. As a matter of prac- 
tical golf one will do well to forget that one has 
wrists, except, perhaps, on the green. 

In Advanced Golf, James Braid on page 61 and 
in the preceding pages explains that the whole idea 
of the golf stroke is supreme tension, and that at 
the moment of impact the tension is greatest. He 
says: "Then comes the moment of impact. 
Crack ! Everything is let loose, and round comes 
the body immediately the ball is struck and goes 
slightly forward until the player is facing the line 
of flight." 

I want my readers particularly to gather the 
idea of "tension" of "supreme tension." Braid 
condemns the idea of the "even acceleration of 
speed" that we hear so much about. His advice 
is so valuable that I must quote it : "What he (the 
player) has to concern himself with is not getting 
his speed gradually, but getting as much of it as 
he possibly can right from the top. No gentle 
starting, but hard at it from the very top, and the 
harder you start the greater will be the momentum 
of the club when the ball is reached. ' ' 



132 THE NEW GOLF 

' ' Hard at it from the very top ' ' is good advice 
in driving. As Vardon tells us, if we grip tightly 
we put the wrists out of business. Well, we don't 
require to think of them in any way. Anything 
that they do, and of course they are important, is 
so natural, so much an integral portion of the arm 
movement that it is practically removed from the 
player's field of inquiry. 

The right leg and hip-action. 

So far the right leg has not had much attention. 
We left it at the top of the swing, firmly planted 
on the right foot, which had not moved in the up- 
ward swing, and full of that torsional strain, 
which, as we have already seen, is so often mis- 
taken for weight ; which, in fact, in my opinion, is 
responsible for all the false teaching about the dis- 
tribution of weight at the top of the swing. 

Now, however, it has to get a little more action. 
Almost directly the club starts on the return jour- 
ney to the ball the right heel begins to leave the 
ground. As it comes up, it performs a most pe- 
culiar function in the swing of some of the most 
famous players. It pushes the hips forward to- 
wards the hole. This is easily the most elusive ac- 
tion, and I think the hardest to describe, in golf. In 
Vardon 's case the downward stroke is scarcely 
more than a fourth of the way through before this 



THE NEW GOLF 133 

peculiar pushing forward of the hips takes place. 
Naturally this movement brings the left foot down 
firmly on the turf, but the left leg does not 
straighten immediately. It remains slightly bent, 
while at the same time the right heel continues to 
rise so as to enable the body to follow through, 
which it does easily and naturally, nearly all the 
weight going on to the left foot at the finish. That 
is the way Vardon plays the stroke, but it is not 
the way in which many of the best players in the 
United States of America do it. They have a 
habit of cutting off the transference of weight, and 
very few of them have the hip action I speak of. 

Now, this hip action has never been properly 
explained. Vardon, so far as I am aware, has 
never said what he thinks of it in his own case, 
or why he does it. I do not wish to dogmatize 
about this hip action, but I believe that it comes in 
earlier in the swing than I have indicated. I am 
inclined to think that this forward push of the 
hips sets up the reciprocating movement of the 
shoulders and so throws them back into position 
so that Vardon can come in under his head as he 
does ; in other words, so that he can get his back 
into it in his own inimitable manner, which is so 
closely, yet not exactly, followed by his faithful 
disciple and admirer, George Duncan. 

I do not care to speak positively about this char^ 



134 THE NEW GOLF 

acteristic of Vardon's drive. The action is found 
in nearly every upright drive of good rhythm, so 
it would be useless to overlook it in an analysis of 
the golf stroke. Something, I think, it must add 
to the speed and also the accuracy of the stroke. 
It keeps the club more in line with the hole. It 
makes the player hit more under his body ; in other 
words, get his back muscles into the stroke and it 
seems as though it gives more scope for the right 
hand ''punch." In Vardon's case I think that it 
gives his right arm, which he carries fairly wide 
of his body, every opportunity to get all the speed 
possible out of it by coming through with the blow 
delivered for a long distance in the line to the 
hole. 

The main speed of the golf stroke comes out of 
the elbow joint and the turn of the forearm. The 
greatest factor probably, almost certainly, is the 
unflexing of the right elbow- joint. It seems to me 
that if the golf swing can be so played as to have 
this take place mainly in the line to the hole it is an 
advantage. 

It must not be thought that this hip action is 
necessary. It would be useless for many to at- 
tempt it. The downward stroke may quite well be 
played by forgetting about the hips, except in so 
far as they come in naturally, and letting the right 
heel come up easily and gradually in the downward 



THE NEW GOLF 135 

swing while the left is sinking back to its original 
position and straightening the left leg again. 

The impact. 

This is the momentous part of the stroke. "What - 
happens during the fraction of an inch that the 
club and ball travel together in adhesion, means as 
much to the golf ball as the direction of the barrel 
at the time of the explosion of the cartridge does 
to the rifle bullet. 

It will be interesting to see what Vardon says of 
this position: ''When the ball has been struck, 
and the follow-through is being accomplished, there 
are two rules, hitherto held sacred, which may at 
last be broken. With the direction and force of 
the swing your chest is naturally turned round un- 
til it is facing the flag, and your body now aban- 
dons all restraint, and to a certain extent throws 
itself, as it were, after the ball. There is a great 
art in timing this body movement exactly. If it 
takes place the fiftieth part of a second too soon 
the stroke will be entirely ruined ; if it comes too 
late it will be quite ineffectual and will only result 
in making the golfer feel uneasy, and as if some- 
thing had gone wrong. When made at the proper 
instant it adds a good piece of distance to the 
drive, and that instant, as explained, is just when 
the club is following through. ' ' 



136 THE NEW GOLF 

There is a statement in this quotation that I 
must refer to in passing. Vardon says that in the 
follow- through ''your body now abandons all re- 
straint. ' ' James Braid also encourages this idea. 
I think that it is both a bad idea and impractical 
golf. If one has come down at the ball at full ten- 
sion it will be impossible immediately after one has 
hit it to abandon all restraint, nor indeed is it ad- 
visable to do so, as witness the fine firm finish and 
beautiful poise with which Vardon completes his 
drive. One must not have it in one's mind that 
the tension and concentration go only half way 
through the swing. I am afraid that that would 
not be conducive to good golf. That, however, is 
by the way. 

The important point for us to consider at and 
about the impact is the transference of the weight. 
According to all the best theory it is, or should be, 
moving from the right leg to the left leg. Instan- 
taneous pictures of Vardon do not show this to be 
the case. They show unmistakably that at the top 
of his swing more of his weight is on his left leg 
than on his right. In a man of his weight there 
would be from eight to twelve pounds more on the 
left foot than on the right. Then we see that he 
moves his hips forward suddenly. This sudden 
pushing forward of the hips sets up the recipro- 
cating motion of the shoulders that I have referred 




♦ 




o 



THE NEW GOLF 137 

to and probably throws back to the right leg a cer- 
tain amount of weight which conies into the stroke 
at the moment of impact. This however is not a 
certainty. There is a chance here for some one 
to fit my machine with a double recording needle 
that will catch and record the weight on the right 
leg at the top of the swing and also record the 
highest weight thereafter put on the right leg dur- 
ing the swing. Before one could speak authori- 
tatively on this point I believe that this would have 
to be done. The scales were made by the most 
famous scales makers in England, but they could 
not arrange this mechanism for me in time for our 
demonstration, nor for the purposes of that de- 
monstration was it absolutely necessary. 

The chief point to notice in Vardon's statement 
about the management of the body weight is con- 
tained in the following words. He says that it 
must be timed to the minutest fraction of a second 
''just when the club is following through." 

Now there can be no doubt that timing this body 
movement does require a great deal of skill; so 
much indeed that a great many players make no 
conscious effort whatever to get it, and finish their 
stroke with their heads over the ball and the arms 
going away on their own account, which cannot 
be considered the best form. It is however 
equally certain that Vardon makes a great error 



138 THE NEW GOLF 

when lie says that the time to put this body weight 
into the stroke "is just when the club is following 
through. ' ' 

From the first instant that the club starts ''fol- 
lowing through" it has absolutely lost any power 
to influence the flight of the ball. The stroke has 
been played and nothing that the player can do 
with his body or any other portion of his anatomy 
can affect the flight of the ball in the least degree. 
The moment one must choose for endeavoring to 
put this body weight into the blow must be the time 
during which the club is making the last two or 
three inches before it hits the ball and then the 
effort must not be made at that time. It must be 
a portion of the swing naturally and harmoniously 
welded into it to come in at this instant. Any 
other way of trying to get it must fail and will 
ruin the rhythm of the swing. The main point 
however is that in any attempt to get this ex- 
tremely accurate piece of timing the idea in one's 
mind must be to do it before impact, and not, as 
Vardon explicitly states, ''just when the club is 
following through"; for then it will be waste ef- 
fort. 

The head. 

I have not had much to say about the head. The 
fact is that there is not much to say about the head 



THE NEW GOLF 139 

that cannot better be said when dealing with the 
function of the eyes. The paramount duty of the 
head is to keep still, to keep in the place it was in 
at the moment of address both as regards dis- 
tance from the hole and height from the ground 
until the ball has been struck. Then, and then 
only, is it released and allowed to become a portion 
of the movable machinery of the drive, and there 
are not wanting those who wish to deny it this 
privilege. However we shall have an opportunity 
of dealing fully with this aspect of the case when 
we come to consider in a future chapter what the 
eyes have to do. 

Summing up. 

I have given all the main features of the drive 
in sections, and in a way not hitherto done. It 
must be learned thoroughly in sections unless one 
is lucky enough to be able to get it thoroughly from 
some first-class player by imitating him. Golf 
however is such a scientific game that if one trusts 
to blind copying there is a great chance that the 
path to improvement will be long and arduous. 
One should try to get all the details of the various 
movements and instructions herein set out stored 
away in one's mind so that there is no conscious 
effort to produce them when one is face to face 
with the ball. This is much easier than it might 



140 THE NEW GOLF 

seem for there is herein nothing that is unnatural. 
That is the great point. The New Golf means 
following nature and the simple truth, and not 
running after mystery and unnatural methods. 

Let us sum up the work in the drive now as 
shortly as possible. From the address the club 
is picked up, after the press forward. At the same 
instant the left heel begins to rise. The club is 
taken back on the upward swing, the left heel 
continuing to rise and the left knee bending in 
toward the ball on account of the bending of the 
ankle and the twist of the instep, but the front part 
of the left foot remains firmly planted on the earth 
so that the weight is spread across it. 

As the left hip follows the left knee forward 
the right hip is drawn back, the spine remaining in 
practically the same position all the time. The 
right foot remains solidly and firmly planted on 
the ground from heel to toe until at the top of 
the swing the torsional strain caused by the half 
twist of the body at the hips can be very distinctly 
felt, in fact so distinctly that the leg becomes quite 
rigid and the knee joint is absolutely stiff. It is 
not bent in the slightest degree, as were both knees 
at the moment of address. At the top of the swing 
the wrists must be well under the shaft of the club. 
The downward swing is started by the body and 
the hands and arms follow, reversing the motion 



THE NEW GOLF 141 

of the upward swing. Soon after the beginning 
of the downward swing the right heel begins to 
leave the ground the hips are pushed slightly for- 
ward towards the hole and the left heel begins 
to return to the earth until at the moment of im- 
pact it has settled firmly into its place again, 
whereas the right heel is up a little and the right 
knee bent as the body goes forward for the finish 
of the stroke which is generally a little across the 
left foot. If it is not so it is usually an indication 
that the player's stance was at first too open or 
that he has twisted on his left foot during the 
downward swing, which is to be avoided. 

I have possibly omitted some slight detail in 
connection with the drive which seemed to me so 
obvious as not to need any special mention. If 
there is anything of this nature that is not found 
in the letter press a careful study of the photo- 
graphs will no doubt repair the deficiency. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE NIBLICK 

A FAMOUS Frenchman was once talking to me 
about golf. He is a great swordsman and occupies 
an important position in one of the greatest firms 
in France. The nature of his work brings him 
constantly face to face with many mechanical 
problems. He had attacked golf just as he would 
have undertaken any one of his business difficulties. 
I was astonished to find how much he had learned 
in his short acquaintance with the game. He 
knew more about the fundamental principles of 
it than most men who had played for more years 
than he had weeks. 

I was much amused at one of his remarks, which 
has in it a great lesson for lazy learners. ''The 
bunker," he said, in answer to my question as to 
his proficiency with the niblick, ''does not annoy 
me any more. I knew that I should have to spend 
a good deal of my time there, so I took it all at 
once. I stayed in one of them, the worst I could 
find, for a day. Now we are good friends." 

142 



THE NEW GOLF 143 

I feel that I need not point the moral. 

The first thing one should do about being 
bunkered is to learn not to be angry about it. It 
really is not so difficult to do this as many people 
think. Many bunker shots are extremely beauti- 
ful and interesting, and if one were playing them 
merely as practise or in demonstrating the shot 
to a friend one would be quite pleased, if not 
indeed proud, to make them. It surely, therefore, 
needs no argument by me to convince any one that 
to approach the bunker as a friend, who will give 
one a chance to show one's control and skill, is 
much better than coming up to it feeling that it is a 
thief who is trying to steal something from one. 
Unless one can feel like this about the bunker one 
should live in one occasionally, not necessarily 
however for a day at a time. 

I am satisfied that this matter is one of those 
that had better be left to the player. There is no 
place like the bunker for instruction as to how to 
get out of it. There are however some quite im- 
portant matters that I may refer to shortly. 

The most important thing when one is in a 
bunker — is to get out. No, I am not looking for a 
laugh here. Quite a number of people do not 
realize this. Many, even quite good golfers, re- 
fuse to accept this idea as practical golf and in- 
sist on ''having a lash" to get distance when 



144 THE NEW GOLF 

obviously the right thing to have done was to have 
played to get out and into position for the next 
stroke. 

It is of course sometimes possible to play for 
distance if the ball happens to be lying well, but 
this is exceptional. Generally one has to make 
getting out, sometimes with a bit of distance in- 
cluded, sometimes merely getting out and into posi- 
tion, the first consideration. 

A persistent delusion about bunker shots is that 
one must smite the sand and not the ball. This 
has been carried to such an extent that people 
now punch the sand unnecessarily far behind the 
ball. In very many cases the ball can be played 
by not taking the sand more than an inch or so from 
the ball. This varies of course with the state of 
the weather and the character of the sand, clay, 
gravel or other material on which the ball is lying. 
It is always well to aim behind the ball, quite apart 
from any other consideration, for, as one is not 
allowed to ground one's club in a bunker, there is 
always a slight tendency not to get right down to 
the stroke. 

Many of the best bunker shots are played by a 
cut shot, the niblick being swung across from right 
to left. This cut gives a very quick rise. 

In many cases one has to trust to a downright 
punch into the sand in which the ball is knocked 



THE NEW GOLF 145 

out of the bunker by the concussion of the blow 
and not by contact with the club. 

If ever there was a case which should teach the 
golfer to trust the loft of his club this is it. The 
greatest secret in getting up and out of a bunker 
is knowing how to hit down hard enough. One 
simply has to put all one's strength into the sand, 
thrash at it with wrists and arms like steel as if 
one intended to go on for a foot or two into it. 
There must be no idea of turning the face of the 
club up as we are sometimes told. Leave the loft 
to attend to itself and give the sand or other stuff 
the hardest punch you know how and don't do 
anything to stop that punch. Let the bunker 
absorb the follow-through. Unless you do this the 
stroke is not likely to be a success. 

The variety of bunker shots is, however, so 
great that each one probably presents some point 
in stance, grip, swing or something else that can 
only be properly explained at the time in the 
bunker. Therefore, get thee to a bunker, prefer- 
ably with a wise friend, but if such a one is not 
available, still, get thee to a bunker, with a trusty 
niblick and try the prescription of our French 
friend. 

If one is lucky enough to have a lie which gives 
a fairly good chance of getting any distance, when 
distance is desired, one must remember that there 



146 THE NEW GOLF 

is always a better chance of clearing the hazard 
if one plays the shot with some cut or slice. This 
must, however, depend in every case on the nature 
and position of the lie and the direction desired. 

In playing any of these cut shots in a bunker, 
with any kind of a club, there must be no attempt 
whatever to do what one is so often told to do, 
namely, to draw the club in towards one at the 
moment of impact. Even when one is hitting the 
ball cleanly — and this is occasionally done in 
bunkers, although to read most books and articles 
one would think otherwise — it is fatal to attempt 
to pull the club across the ball at the moment of 
impact. I need hardly say what it would be if 
the same attempt were made with an ounce or two 
of sand between the ball and the club. 



CHAPTER X 

THE MASTEE STEOKE 

When Harry Vardon published The Complete 
Golfer, lie said that in his opinion the master stroke 
of the game was : ' ' . . . the ball struck by any club 
to which a big pull or slice is intentionally applied 
for the accomplishment of a specific purpose which 
could not be achieved in any other way. ' ' 

What he says about it is interesting enough to 
quote fully. At page 86 of The Complete Golfer he 
says: "What, then, is the master stroke? I say 
that it is the ball struck by any club to which a big 
pull or slice is intentionally applied for the ac- 
complishment of a specific purpose which could 
not be achieved in any other way; and nothing 
more exemplifies the curious waywardness of this 
game of ours than the fact that the stroke which 
is the confounding and torture of the beginner 
who does it constantly, he knows not why, but al- 
ways to his detriment, should later on at times 
be the most coveted shot of all and should then be 
the most difficult of accomplishment. I call it the 

147 



148 THE NEW GOLF 

master shot, because to acomplish it with any 
certainty and perfection is so difficult, even to the 
experienced golfer, because it calls for the most 
absolute command over the club and every nerve 
and sinew of the body, and the courageous heart 
of the true sportsman whom no difficulty may 
daunt, and because, when properly done, it is a 
splendid thing to see,^and for a certainty results 
in material gain to the man who played it." 

It would be hard indeed to find a more outspoken 
or enthusiastic declaration in favor of the pull and 
the slice as the master strokes in golf. 

J. H. Taylor is not at all enthusiastic about these 
strokes. He says at page 88 of Taylor on Golf: 
''Still it is not advisable, neither do I look upon 
it as being golf in the truest sense of the word, for 
the knack of pulling or slicing to be cultivated, as 
I am afraid it is by a great many players. No 
compromise should be made with a fault." 

As I write this my mind runs back to a glorious 
summer afternoon at Mid Surrey, Taylor 's famous 
home course. Coming to one of the greens Taylor 
got off the line a bit and for his approach found 
his way to the green blocked by a great tree. I 
had taken a friend down to see the match, but I 
forget who Taylor's opponent was. 

"Watch him cut round the tree," I said. *'He 
can just about swerve to the edge of the green and 





" o 



2 -a- 



s= & 



o s-S 






THE NEW GOLF 149 

then his cut will carry him in near the pin." I 
knew what Taylor could do with his mashie. He 
did it. 

He played a beautiful cut shot that swept past 
the tree, curled a little in its flight, dropped on 
the edge of the very large green, then took its 
side roll and ran in nearly to the hole. It was a 
perfect approach, yet without the slice — for cut 
(except back-cut) in golf is merely slice by another 
name and with a different club, and what one wants 
to do with a mashie to-day he may want to do with 
a brassy to-morrow — it would have been impossi- 
ble. 

It is however interesting to have the different 
views of such famous players. It is indeed true 
that if one plays golf as one should play it one will 
not often require to slice or pull, for such strokes 
are generally in the nature of atonement, or at- 
tempted atonement, for some previous error; but 
then who, among us, does play golf as one should 
play it. Therefore it seems that we must continue 
to recognize the existence of the pull and the slice 
but we must also try to relegate them to their 
proper places in the game. 

In 1909 I said that if I had to name a stroke in 
golf as the master stroke, other than the simple 
put, I should name the "wind cheater," or the 
class of strokes that now come in under the mis- 



150 THE NEW GOLF 

nomer of ' ' push. ' ' I am, and have been for years, 
of opinion that the most valuable spin in golf is 
backspin. For one most important reason I put 
strokes of this class ahead of the pull and the slice. 
They are infinitely more reliable. The spin does 
not affect their direction. It merely affects the 
trajectory, and on that it has a very beneficial 
effect. 

In Harry Vardon's latest book How to Play Golf 
he comes round entirely to my point of view and 
declares outright and without any qualification 
that in his opinion the push stroke is the master 
stroke in golf. He also explains how it is played, 
or rather, perhaps I should say, how he thinks it 
is played. I put it this way, for I think that his 
explanation of the stroke is one of the most mar- 
velous mistakes that has ever been associated with 
the name of a famous player. 

Vardon says that the stroke is played by coming 
down on the ball with the face of the club over- 
hanging it and then, just at the moment of impact, 
twisting the club vigorously round the ball so as 
to produce the necessary amount of backspin. 

The proper method of playing this beautiful and 
useful stroke provided one of the most remarkable 
controversies in the history of English golf. Some 
of the explanations that were given were simply 
amazing, while some were also extremely amusing. 



THE NEW GOLF 151 

The fact that Vardon now considers this stroke 
the master stroke in golf warrants our giving it 
the closest analysis and attention. "Whatever one 
thinks of Vardon 's explanation one can have noth- 
ing but admiration for his execution of this beauti- 
ful stroke. 

He will place a ball on the turf and show you 
the spot in front of the ball where he will cut the 
turf after he has sent the ball on its way, and he 
will do this with mathematical accuracy, but he 
does this by nature and not by his published theory 
of the stroke, which is not practical golf, which is 
in fact impossible of accomplishment by any one — 
even a Vardon. 

I may explain in the first place how Vardon 
plays the shot in so far as regards those portions 
of it that are not the subject of controversy. Ac- 
cording to one of his regular chroniclers he uses 
a cleek that is somewhat shorter than his ordinary 
club and with a more upright lie and greater loft. 
It is also somewhat deeper in the face. The up- 
right lie naturally brings him in more over the 
ball. He addresses the ball so that his hands are 
several inches in front of it. At the top of the 
swing his weight is well forward. Then he comes 
down on the ball and hits it very hard so that it 
bounces off the ground ! 

I am not responsible for any of this description, 



152 THE NEW GOLF 

but it is practically correct until we come to the 
last statement — which we may kindly forget. 

The storm of controversy centered about what 
happened at the moment of impact. I must try to 
explain that as simply and shortly as possible 
and then show the result of the stroke. 

The master stroke in golf, which is called the 
"push," when played with a cleek, and a ''wind 
cheater," or something else, when played with a 
wooden club, although it is essentially the same 
stroke, is simply a descending blow. The ball is 
struck by the club before it has reached the lowest 
point in its swing. That really covers the whole 
ground, and had it not been for the wonderful 
statements that have been made about the stroke 
it would hardly be necessary to amplify it. 

Although the stroke is a descending blow the 
club must reach the ball in such a manner that the 
loft can -act on the ball by hitting it beneath the 
center of its mass and with the face of the club 
inclined backward. It is obvious that unless this 
were done the ball would not rise. 

The loft of the club is lessened by the fact that 
one addresses the ball with the hands forward 
of the club by about two or three inches. The 
object of this is to regulate the swing of the club 
so that it reaches its lowest point about where one 
usually addresses the ball. This means that it 



THE NEW GOLF 153 

passes across the back of the ball on its way down 
to the lowest point in the swing and cuts or should 
cut or graze the turf an inch or so in front of 
where the ball lay before it was struck. The 
finish of the stroke is low and the head of the 
club should follow out down the line to the hole 
as much as possible. The stroke is in fact a chop. 
It is if possible more of a hit than other iron 
strokes. A player might get a better idea of it if 
he were told to ' ' rap "it. I heard that somewhere 
once, and the underlying idea seemed good to me. 
There probably is no stroke in golf where one 
seems to finish on the ball more. This is no doubt 
on account of the force which goes into the down- 
ward hit. One must hit this ball for all one is 
worth and leave the earth or anything else that 
comes in the way to absorb all the shock that is 
not taken up by the ball. 

The flight of this ball and the run thereof are 
truly remarkable. When one realizes what there 
is in them for the ardent golfer, if one is an ardent 
golfer, one is indeed stupid not to try to cultivate 
the stroke. 

The ball goes away from the club, when the 
stroke has been properly played, with a lot of back- 
spin. On account of the forward position of the 
hands and the consequent reduction of the loft of 
the club the first part of the flight is very low. 



154 THE NEW GOLF 

It maintains this low path for a considerable 
distance, rising very gradually until the pace be- 
gins to decrease. Then the backspin begins to 
exert its influence. In this case the lower portion 
of the ball is naturally the forward-spinning part. 
Therefore most of the friction is underneath. This 
friction now begins to force the ball gradually 
upward in a beautiful curve. Soon the power of 
the spin is diminished and as the force of the blow 
is also dying away, the ball, still with some back- 
spin on it, begins to fall. The friction on the un- 
derneath side of the ball is now if anything shifted 
a little farther backward on the ball on accoomt 
of the change of direction. This tends to keep the 
ball edging onward. 

Now the backspin is almost exhausted, and when 
the ball finally pitches all that remains of it is 
probably instantaneously killed, for the trajectory 
of the ball, notwithstanding its rise toward the end 
of the carry, is always low. There is nothing 
therefore in this ball, notwithstanding its back- 
spin, to prevent its being a good runner, which it 
frequently is. 

An analysis of the beneficial qualities of the 
backspin and its application in this stroke will I 
think be found to justify my old-standing claim on 
its behalf. Firstly, its low carry is always a great 
point in its favor even in calm weather. Against 



THE NEW GOLF 155 

the wind it requires no recommendation. It was 
its great ability to face a wind that got this stroke, 
off the wood, its old name of ''wind cheater." 
Now one hears ad nauseam of this stroke as "the 
push," but one may search any book on advanced 
golf for an explanation of this great drive or 
brassy shot and get but little for one's pains. 

Off the tee it is a splendid stroke and it may 
with advantage be played from a high tee. This 
was regarded some years ago as a fanciful notion. 
A high tee for a low ball ! Whoever heard of such 
an idea? Now one of the most famous of the 
continental golfers gets a consistently low ball 
from a high tee. It is obvious that if one tees 
high for this stroke one has a greater distance 
wherein to pass down across the ball. It is this 
passing down that gives the beneficial backspin 
of golf so those who want extra distance and a 
low ball from the tee may take a little more sand. 
This is merely another case of loft. If the face 
of the club is right at the moment of impact it 
will not matter if the ball is three-eighths of an 
inch off the ground or five-eighths. 

After the low flight has served its purpose we 
see the backspin getting to work and assisting to 
raise the ball to the top of what one might almost 
call its secondary trajectory, and when the force of 
the blow and the spin together are no longe;r 



156 THE NEW GOLF 

enough to keep the ball up we see it, still with a 
low flight at the end of its carry, approaching 
the ground at an angle that will surely, on its 
striking the fairway, be sufficient to kill the remains 
of the backspin and ensure a good run. If any 
one can show me a ball that possesses the same 
ideal qualities for golf as this I shall have to 
readjust my ideas, but until then I shall remain 
loyal to this stroke and indeed to this class of 
strokes as the master strokes of golf, and this I 
believe is true of the strokes be they off iron or 
wood, half, three-quarter or full, for when we get 
into the restricted shot we find the influence of 
the backspin asserting itself on the ball's pitching, 
and thus giving the skilful player an amazing 
control of his approach shots. 

I do not think that it is necessary for me to add 
anything to my explanation of the push shot. I 
have referred to Vardon's explanation of it in 
How to Play Golf. I speak now from memory, 
but there was something in that book that has al- 
ways been a puzzle to me. Vardon refers to James 
Braid as being the greatest master of the push 
stroke. He may be. I never saw Braid get his 
low ball except with a slight pull. I have never 
seen him play a genuine push stroke, I never heard 
that he does it, nor have I ever read of his doing 
so, and in Advanced Golf, where one might rea- 



THE NEW GOLF 157 

sonably expect to find this stroke explained, he does 
not elucidate it, nor does he do so in How to Play 
Golf. 

If Vardon is correct in his statement that Braid 
is the greatest master, amongst professional 
golfers, of the push stroke, he must recognize at 
once the hopelessness of his explanation of how 
to play the push, for Braid, in Advanced Golf, ex- 
plicitly tells us that trying to do anything during 
impact such as that suggested by Vardon is quite 
futile. 

Vardon 's description in How to Play Golf of the 
manner in which the push shot is played is so re- 
markable that I reproduce it here. He says : 

** While it is a shot for any club, the cleek is per- 
haps the best implement with which to begin prac- 
tising it. Before proceeding to describe how it 
is done, let me explain in a few words the idea of 
the stroke. What happens (at least, so I feel con- 
vinced, although nobody sees it happen) is that the 
ball is made to spin slightly up the face of the 
club at the instant of impact. The golfer has 
no need to worry about producing this effect; it 
will come if he accomplish the shot properly. That 
is the essence of the shot; it produces the back- 
spin while the power of the blow naturally sends 
the ball forward. Now as to the way to obtain 
the effect ; a way that must be precise, although it 



158 THE NEW GOLF 

is not nearly so difficult a problem as it may look 
on paper. The swing must be distinctly more 
upright than for the ordinary cleek shot. The 
club must go up straighter than for any other 
stroke in the game, and, that being so, nothing 
more than a three-quarter swing should be per- 
mitted. .The uprightness of the swing will de- 
mand a closer stance than for the ordinary cleek 
shot. The player should be several inches nearer 
to the ball because, instead of swinging the club 
round to it with a purely propelling action, he is 
going to endeavor to come down on to the side of 
the ball, if I may so explain it. This sounds, I 
know, only about one degree removed from an in- 
centive to topping. It is likely that the golfer 
will go through a period of that painful purgatory 
in his early efforts to execute the shot, but it will 
be solely attributable to his failure to use his body 
and wrists in the correct way at the time of impact. 
It is quite clear that the simple propelling influence 
will not produce the essential backspin. The face 
of the club must come down broadside on to the 
ball so as to make the latter run up the face of 
the implement, thus imparting the spin while the 
forward movement is in progress. 

''We left ourselves standing closer to the ball 
than for the ordinary cleek. The stance, too, 
should be distinctly more forward. In no circum- 



THE NEW GOLF 159 

stances should the hands be behind the ball during 
the address ; indeed, they must be an inch or two in 
front of it. Moreover, the eyes must be focussed, 
not on the turf immediately behind the object, but 
on that extremity of the ball itself which is far- 
thest from the hole. During the address, our range 
of vision, so far as we are conscious of it, should 
end half-way down the ball — on the pimple that is 
protruding farthest away from the hole (if we are 
using a ball of pimple marking). When we play 
an ordinary cleek shot, we graze the turf several 
inches behind the ball so as to make the loft of the 
club do its work immediately. With the push- 
shot, we obtain the loft in a different way. In an 
infinitesimal period something happens which pro- 
duces back-spin before the action of raising the 
ball has time to take effect. What we want to do 
is to bring the instrument down so that the hind- 
most part of the ball is struck at a point of the 
club 's face which is rather nearer to the sole than 
the top. In a way, then, we want to come do\vn 
half on top of the ball. We have seen that our 
hands are in front of it, so that when the contact 
is made at the rearmost part of the ball (not under 
it), more than half of the club as between the sole 
and the top is tilted, so to speak, over the ball. I 
need scarcely say that this position is of the 
shortest instant's duration. We are not going to 



i6o THE NEW GOLF 

stand and reflect on it; we have no time even to 
catch a glimpse of it. Nevertheless, the securing 
of it is the first essential of the shot ; this is a fact 
upon which I imagine all good exponents of the 
push stroke have satisfied themselves. 

' ' Now as to the simultaneous yet rhythmic move- 
ments which complete the shot. At the moment of 
impact (right at that instant; not the smallest 
fraction of a second earlier or later) the player 
should straighten the elbows, stiffen the wrists, 
and let the body go forward a few inches with the 
club. The quick action of the elbows and wrists 
will push the face of the club under the ball as 
both go forward, and the body moving slightly 
in the same direction will assist in the project. 
The ground will be grazed the smallest distance 
imaginable in front of the place where the ball 
was reposing. The follow-through should not be 
arrested ; indeed, it should be encouraged, because 
the wrists and elbows must relax to the normal the 
instant they have executed the push; but, in the 
ordinary way, the follow-through will not be so 
full as in ordinary shots. 

' * I need scarcely say that the secret of success is 
to make the various movements synchronize to per- 
fection. The arms must straighten, the wrists 
must tighten, and the body must move forward at 
the exact time when the club meets the ball. The 



THE NEW GOLF i6i 

effect will be readily perceived. The club-face 
will be turned under the ball, while picking it up 
cleanly. The two will be in contact for a period 
not long enough to be noticed, but sufficiently ap- 
preciable for the ball to run up the face of the 
implement as it is being urged forward. Thus 
will be produced the back-spin. A tight grip is 
necessary, and I may perhaps repeat the warning 
that directly the impact is complete the elbows 
and wrists should relax so as to facilitate the fol- 
low-through. They will have done their work. 

' ' This description may make the shot appear like 
a piece of jugglery, but it is a faithful explanation 
of the stroke as I play it myself, and as I have 
seen others play it. From time to time I have 
observed in responsible papers articles dealing 
with the push-shot, and giving wrong impressions 
of its character. Thus I have read on more than 
one occasion that rudimentary mechanics prove 
beyond all question that, in order to raise a ball 
into the air and obtain an accurate and adequate 
flight, it is necessary for the club to make the im- 
pact below the center of the ball. I do not profess 
to know much about the science of mechanics, but 
I am sure that I know how the push-shot is played. 
If, at the outset, you were to strike the ball below 
the center, you would not impart much back-spin 
to it. You might obtain a little, but the effort 



i62 THE NEW GOLF 

would be hardly distingniishable from an ordinary 
lofting shot. What you have to do is to bring the 
face of the club down to the ball at the center of 
its mass, and then, by that simultaneous stiffening 
of the elbows, tightening of the wrists, and push- 
ing forward of the body, make the face of the im- 
plement run almost half-way round the ball. It 
has been said that it is impossible for me or any- 
body else to observe what happens at the instant 
when the club and the ball come into contact. I am 
free to confess that it is impossible to see the club 
hit the ball. Let me, however, discuss the matter 
from another standpoint. A good player always 
knows what he is trying to do, no matter what club 
he has in his hands. If he repeatedly hits the 
shots just as he tries to hit them, he knows that he 
is using the club and striking the ball in just the 
manner that he has conceived for the occasion. 
Otherwise we should have to arrive at the con- 
clusion that all his satisfactory strokes were flukes, 
because he had endeavored to accomplish the thing 
in a certain way and had obtained the desired 
result by unwittingly doing something else. That, 
surely, would be absurd. Consequently, although 
it is true that I do not see the club hit the ball, I 
know that the push-shot is obtained in the manner 
which I have described. I have dealt fully with 
the subject, and endeavored to correct wrong im- 



THE NEW GOLF 163 

pressions, because I feel that the 'push' is now 
the master shot in golf, and the stroke which all 
good amateurs ought to practise if they take to 
heart the frequent reproach that the standard of 
their play is falling below that of professional 
golf." 

One might perhaps be pardoned for asking, if 
the cleek is to "run almost half-way round the 
ball, ' ' what happens to the shaft of the club when 
the back of the club head, during impact, remember, 
is presented to the hole, and how it is possible, in 
such an event, for the ball to start its flight low, as 
this shot always does. 

One would, out of consideration for Vardon, 
have omitted his wonderful description if he had 
not explicitly stated that the ability to play this 
shot well is the one thing that keeps the profes- 
sionals ' golf superior to that of the amateurs. 

It then became my duty to submit his explana- 
tion of it and mine. I must leave it to the intelli- 
gence of golfers to decide which is correct. 



CHAPTEE XI 

THE SLICE 

The slice is a very useful shot when one can 
control it. Unfortunately very few players can 
control it, although a vast number can produce it 
— when they do not want to do so. 

Vardon is a great believer in playing his drive 
with a slice. It must not be thought when I say 
this that he produces what one immediately thinks 
of when the word slice is mentioned. On certain 
courses he puts a little slice on the ball. It is not 
a considerable cut as is the ordinary slice. It is 
just enough to be noticeable at the end of the ball 's 
carry and it gives him, so he says, greater con- 
fidence in getting the ball up and away. 

I am not mentioning this with the idea of en- 
couraging those who cannot slice — and there are 
some — to cultivate the art, nor with the desire of 
solacing those who have the vice. The slice is a 
well known stroke in golf and therefore we must 
give it our consideration. Also if we see clearly 
how it is produced, it may assist some who have 
it — and desire it not — to shed it. 

164 



THE NEW GOLF 165 

The slice primarily is a cut stroke. It is caused 
by the club engaging the ball as it crosses the in- 
tended line of flight to the hole. 

In driving for an intentional slice the stance 
is much more open than for an ordinary drive and 
the ball is taken much more forward, about op- 
posite the left instep. The right foot is nearly 
at a right angle to the line to the hole and the left 
foot almost points to the hole. 

Directly the club-head leaves the ball it goes 
away farther from the player than the ball. It is 
raised outwards so that it goes up in a plane that 
will in the return stroke carry the club-head out 
beyond the line to the hole. This is the simple 
explanation of the intentional slice so far as re- 
gards the stroke. Of course practically all the 
things that I have explained in the chapter on 
driving take place in the slice. The main differ- 
ence is in the plane of travel of the club 's head in 
relation to the ball. This is caused principally by 
the alteration in stance. 

The club-head in returning across the line to the 
hole engages the ball; and while the ball is still, 
as it is called, in adhesion, crosses that line, carry- 
ing the ball half flattened against its face for an 
appreciable distance. The ball does not leave the 
club until it regains its normal shape ; in fact, it is 
regaining its normal shape that takes if off the 



i66 THE NEW GOLF 

club. While this is happening, however, the ball 
has flattened against the face of the club as men- 
tioned. The face of the club is inclined back- 
wardly, and so the ball flattens on to it at this 
angle at its point of extreme compression which 
occurs about the middle of the full extent of the 
ball's travel — or roll — on the face of the club. 

It may be interesting to state how this com- 
pression happens. I have never seen it stated in 
any book or paper, and I do not remember that I 
have ever before stated it myself. 

We have all of us at some time seen the impres- 
sion of the ball left on a club. Generally that is 
the clear cut brand of the compression caused by 
a straight hit and it gives one a good idea of the 
extent to which a golf ball flattens on to the club. 
The "picture," or impression, of a sliced ball is 
however quite different. The club naturally 
makes contact with the ball practically at a point, 
but it does not go on driving down a line that 
taken from the club through the ball would be in 
the plane of the ball's flight to the hole as in the 
plain drive. The club is crossing the line of the 
ball's flight. Therefore it engages the ball grad- 
ually and as it crosses it proceeds to roll it on the 
face of the club. The area of contact is very slight 
at first but it gradually broadens out until we get 
the full diameter of compression after which the 



THE NEW GOLF 167 

mark narrows off by degrees until the ball leaves 
the club with just about the same impression as it 
came onto it. 

The mark tells us clearly what happened. The 
club touched the ball very slightly at first and 
began to roll it. Soon the weight of the blow was 
felt and the ball in the course of its roll across 
the face of the club became fully compressed and 
then it gradually regained its shape as it rolled 
off the club. 

The mark that the ball leaves on a club is an 
irregular stunted ellipse. The point that I want 
my readers to remember is, however, the angle 
that the ball takes in flattening on to the face of 
the club during its roll or movement across it. It 
is reasonable to assume that this angle is the chief 
determining factor in settling the axis of rotation 
of the ball. 

If we admit this we see then that the slice goes 
away spinning from the left to the right and with 
the axis of rotation lying back towards the player 
at an angle which is roughly the same as the loft 
of the driver or other club with which the stroke 
was played. 

Sometimes the slice is played as the club is going 
downwards and across the line. This tends to tilt 
the axis of spin so that the top of it inclines a 
little toward the player, while the angle at which 



i68 THE NEW GOLF 

it is leaning back is not appreciably altered. This 
point arises when we come to consider the reason 
for the slice being a poor runner. 

A sliced ball swerves in its flight from left to 
right. The cause of this swerve is very simple 
and may be explained in a few words. On the left 
side — if I may use that word when speaking of a 
sphere — the ball has the sum of the two motions 
forward progression and forward revolution, for 
on that side the ball is spinning toward the hole. 
Thus, as Newton put it, the motions on that side 
' ' conspire ' ' and they beat the contiguous air more 
vigorously than does the other side of the ball, 
where the motion of the spin is away from the 
hole. Every projectile naturally seeks the line 
of least resistance. It follows then that the ball 
edges over to that side whereon there is least 
friction, the backward-spinning side. This is a 
short and simple explanation of why the golf ball 
swerves in its flight. 

Comparatively few players could explain what 
causes a slice and the resultant swerve which is so 
often disastrous. Is it likely that if one does not 
know how one is offending that one can take 
effectual steps to stop the offense? It seems rea- 
sonable to think that a clear idea of how the slice 
is produced must help any one who wants to do it, 
or any one who is doing it and desires ardently 



THE NEW GOLF 169 

not to do it. The golf stroke makes such an in- 
exorable demand for accuracy that it seems to me 
that if one desires to excel, particularly if one 
has taken to the game late in life, one's best chance 
for success lies in knowing all there is to be known 
about the game outside of playing the strokes. 
Surely, if one brings to one's aid this knowledge, 
which cannot possibly, when sanely used, hamper 
execution in any way, one must have a better 
chance of success than he who insists on groping 
in the dark in the pathetic idea that he cannot 
take advantage of the accumulated work of those 
who have gone before him. 

Grolf really is not a game calling for a vast 
amount of intellect. If it were so, we should not 
see the men who are supreme at it where they are. 
None knows that better than they themselves. 
They have got where they are by a lifetime of 
imitation, by learning through the eye — probably 
the best way, too, if one has time enough, and 
lacks either the desire or the power to use some 
gray matter with one's strokes. 

The real demand of golf is for extreme mechan- 
ical accuracy. There are many reasons for this. 
The striking face of the golf club is the smallest 
surface used for such a purpose in any field sport, 
the golf ball is the smallest ball used in any ball 
game, and, with the exception of polo, the ball is 



170 THE NEW GOLF 

farther removed from the line of vision than in 
any ball game that I can call to mind. It follows 
that the margin for error is extremely small. 

Of course against these disabilities we have the 
fact that the golfer is always playing a stationary 
ball, but even when this is taken into consideration, 
it will be seen that there is not in the golf stroke 
much room for haphazard methods or guess-work, 
particularly when one is playing such a stroke as 
the slice, wherein, on account of the glancing blow, 
the margin for error is even less than in the ordi- 
nary stroke. 

I am emphasizing these points here because one 
is frequently told, as we have already seen, by 
persons whose words ought to carry authority, 
that the slice is played by drawing the hands in 
towards one at the moment of impact. Nothing 
could be further from the truth and nothing could 
be better devised utterly to spoil the correct exe- 
cution of the stroke. Such a performance would 
tend to arrest the club head at the very moment 
when it must be traveling, unrestrained in any 
way whatever, back in the arc which one decided 
on as its track the moment one started it on its 
upward journey from the ball. 

This is the truth about the production of the 
slice. If any one is suffering from producing it 
consistently and involuntarily there are many ways 



THE NEW GOLF 171 

of trying to cure him ; as many cures, I should say, 
as there are varieties of the disease. 

The outstanding suggestion, of course, is to 
moderate one's stance, to get back by degrees to 
the normal open stance, or even, if necessary, be- 
yond it. Again one 's hands may be wrong and the 
grip may perhaps be altered with advantage, but 
each case has almost to be judged on its own 
merits. I have, however, cured many a case of 
slicing without even seeing the sufferer handle a 
club by risking the guess that he was not on his 
left foot firmly enough at the moment of impact, 
and by impressing on him most forcibly the im- 
portance of being solidly on his left foot at the 
top of his drive, in his case to have an extra four- 
teen to eighteen pounds on it if necessary over and 
above the weight on his right foot. This nearly 
always means bringing them ''through" the ball 
and out after it a bit more than they are accus- 
tomed to. It is extremely easy to slice if one 
anchors the weight instead of letting it go down 
the line just as one is hitting the ball. 

Another exercise that helps some people is to 
run a chalk mark in the line from the hole, to 
place the ball on it, and to drive from it, taking 
care that in the swing back the club never gets 
any farther away from one than in the address. 
If this does not correct the fault, start the swing by 



172 THE NEW GOLF 

coming in from the line of flight directly there is 
the least tendency on the part of the arms to pull 
the club-head in, which, if one is playing correctly, 
is almost immediately the club head leaves the 
ball. Theoretically the club-head leaves the line 
of flight and comes in towards the player's side 
of it the instant it leaves the ground, nor does it 
return to the line until the actual moment of im- 
pact ; for the plane of the irregular ellipse formed 
by the travel of the club-head only coincides for 
a very short distance with the plane of the ball's 
flight. This is another reason for having a fairly 
comprehensive idea of what it is we are trying 
to do when we start driving; for unless we did 
move out bodies forward, as advised by Vardon, 
on to the ball, we should actually have the head of 
the driver in the line to the hole but for about an 
inch. We must therefore see to it that we try 
our utmost to cultivate the art of timing our bodies 
on to the ball but not on to the follow-through. 
That is a matter that will attend to itself. 

We have seen now how the slice is produced, 
and what it is that causes the ball to curve away 
to the right. The spin on a golf ball, unless the 
ball has been grievously miss-hit, is nearly always 
dominated by the pace of the ball. It is when the 
pace begins to die away that the spin shows its 
mischievous qualities if there is enough of it to 



THE NEW GOLF 173 

be mischievous. Then it is astonishing to see how 
the ball, especially if the wind assists it, will 
career away to the right and probably end by 
hiding itself in a most inconvenient place in the 
rough. 

If however the ball should land on the fair green 
and not too near the edge of the course one has a 
fair chance of escaping trouble, for the slice does 
not run so freely as its more esteemed relation, 
the pull. The reason for this is not very generally 
understood, but it is simple, and may in some ways 
be helpful, so I give it here. 

In dealing with what took place while the ball 
and the club were in adhesion I referred to the fact 
that sometimes the slice is played as the club is 
returning downwards and across the line of flight, 
and I explained the resultant tilt that is given to 
the axis of spin. It will be seen that in the spin 
of an ordinary slice the axis is almost vertical, but 
generally lying back a little. When it gets that 
little extra tilt I spoke of, the axis of spin of the 
sliced ball towards the end of its carry almost 
exactly coincides with the line of its flight. This 
is almost equivalent to having a peg top come 
down, let us say at an angle of thirty-five degrees 
and with the peg sticking out toward the spot to 
which it is going. Certainly the peg is not visible 
in the case of the golf ball. It is invisible, but the 



174 THE NEW GOLF 

effect is there — to a less extent, of course, but it 
is there. 

Every spinning thing tries very hard to stay in 
the plane of its rotation. This is the secret of 
the gyroscope. The sliced ball is no exception to 
the rule. It strives as hard as it can to remain 
in the plane of its rotation. As the axis of rota- 
tion coincides with the line of the ball's flight it 
follows that the plane of spin of the sliced ball is 
squarely across the line of its travel, therefore 
the moment the ball lands that rotation fights to 
the last turn before it consents to allow the sliced 
ball to turn over in the way that will allow it to 
roll sideways off the course. This explanation 
may make a little clearer to my readers why it is 
that a properly regulated slice gives control of 
the run especially on heavy ground. 

There is an exaggerated form of the slice that 
may more aptly be termed "a reverse pull" that 
produces a different effect on landing. In this 
stroke the ball, generally by accident, is struck 
more as the club is coming up. This produces a 
different effect on the run of the ball, which then 
has more of the nature of the pull in its run. 

The outstanding characteristics of the sliced ball 
are its sudden rise, high flight, curve to the right 
and its restricted run. The sudden rise of the 
slice has not been satisfactorily explained. Per- 



THE NEW GOLF 175 

sonally (in addition to the fact that one frequently 
and unconsciously increases the natural loft of the 
club) I think it is attributable to the fact that the 
axis of spin is oblique, and that almost the whole 
of the forward and bottom part of the ball is re- 
volving so as to get a lot of friction instead of, 
as in the ordinary case of a spinning ball, getting 
it only on one side. This I think must tend to 
push the ball up a good deal. 

It would be easy for me to describe to you how 
to play dogs-legs and elbows, and around clumps 
of trees, and how to hold up against the sides of 
hills, all by the help of the slice, but I shall not 
do so. I have told you enough to assist you to 
learn and understand the shot. If you put it into 
practise to the extent of learning the stroke so 
as to be able to produce it in the rare eases where 
it really is the best stroke to use you will under- 
stand that I was wise to leave all that other stuff 
out. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE PULL 

The pull is looked upon by golfers in an en- 
tirely different light from that in which they 
regard its humble relative the slice. There is 
hardly the player traveling the links to-day who 
does not feel rather pleased with himself when he 
gets — generally more by accident than design — 
that long low ball that scoots out toward the rough 
on the right of the course, mayhap even over it, 
and then, toward the end of its carry, swings in 
toward the middle of the course and on landing 
runs like a frightened rabbit down the course to- 
ward the hole. 

This may be a somewhat pleasanter picture than 
that which comes into the mind of the ordinary 
golfer when the pull is mentioned, but it is not, 
as any golfer knows, any exaggeration of the real 
stroke, nor of the pleasure in playing it, par- 
ticularly when it has been done of knowledge and 
skill and not by chance. 

The pull is most certainly a valuable and beau- 
tiful stroke. Every player who wants to rise to 

176 



THE NEW GOLF 177 

the highest class should understand it and try to 
get it. A man may go a long time without really 
requiring to play a pull. At any time it may be 
the one stroke that will save the hole — or the 
match — for him. It is well worth knowing — and 
having. 

Most golfers know the stance and address for 
the pull and many of them have a hazy idea about 
a particular grip, while a method of cocking up the 
toe of the club and turning it inward is alleged 
to produce the pull, but beyond this very few, un- 
less they are lucky enough to have it naturally, 
can go. 

For the benefit of those who do not know, I may 
say that the stance for the pull is almost the re- 
verse of that for the slice. One addresses the ball 
very far back, so far back indeed that it is only 
three or four inches in front of the right heel. 
The left foot instead of pointing towards the hole 
now points towards the line of flight at almost a 
right angle, within, say, five or six inches of that 
angle. It is now advanced, and is nearer the line 
of flight than the right foot, which is eight or nine 
inches further from the line of flight than is the 
left foot and pointing away from the hole more 
than in the slice. The right hand is more behind 
the shaft of the club and the left hand has nat- 
urally moved round a little with it, otherwise the 



178 THE NEW GOLF 

grip is the same as in the ordinary stroke. This 
stance naturally brings the hands a little in front 
of the ball. 

The swing back in the pull is much flatter than 
that of the shce. Iromediately the club leaves the 
ball it begins to curve in and away from the line 
to the hole. This is the correct method of starting 
the stroke, although Vardon says that the club 
should be taken .back as in the ordinary drive. 
Now I have told you the most important part of it. 
You have got your grip and stance correct and you 
have started your swing correctly. If you carry 
on now you can scarcely avoid' playing the stroke 
properly. 

You have started your swing back with the in- 
stant inward curve. That is going to make your 
swing flatter than usual, and your stance and ad- 
dress will make you, in the downward swing, played 
with all observance of the essentials of the proper 
drive, pass your club out and across the line of 
flight and slightly upwards during the all-impor- 
tant period of adhesion. 

When I first explained this stroke in London it 
caused a furious controversy. It was claimed that 
my explanation was wrong and that the real cause 
of the pull was the turn-over of the wrists at the 
moment of impact. Any attempt to do anything 
of this kind would simply lead to foundering the 



THE NEW GOLF 179 

ball. It is not, nor ever was, practical golf. You 
will observe that as, in speaking of tbe slice, I said 
nothing of the turn under of the right wrist in the 
follow-through, so here I have no instructions to 
give about turning over the right wrist. It will 
do it of its own accord in the follow-through if you 
play the stroke correctly. 

It is curious that it has never been asserted of 
the slice that this turn-under of the right wrist is 
done at the moment of impact; yet of the pull it 
is most obstinately asserted, in some quarters even 
now, that the turn-over of the right wrist takes 
place during impact. The fact is, however, that it 
follows the impact with such rapidity that the eye 
cannot distinguish the movement. 

In England the controversy reached such a stage 
that some people got quite angry about it. I of- 
fered to give a public demonstration of the matter 
if the doubters would make the necessary arrange- 
ments and bear the expense, but this they would 
not do, so I settled it another way. 

About this time I was writing Modern Golf, and 
I was using George Duncan to illustrate the 
strokes. He was then a comparatively unknown 
quantity; but in my opinion full of the highest 
promise, which he has since all but fulfilled. 

Duncan is probably only inferior to Vardon as 
a stroke player, and I have a great respect for his 



i8o THE NEW GOLF 

knowledge of the theory and practise of the game. 
On nearly every point he and I were of one mind. 
When it came to illustrating the pull, however, 
Duncan told me plainly that he did not agree with 
my explanation of it ; that he was, in fact, in the 
enemy's camp. 

I said, ''Very well, George, I must show the 
stroke myself, but I would sooner have you. Now 
I shall tell you how you can prove that I am right 
without troubling me in the matter." 

Then I gave Duncan instructions how to conduct 
a test that would give him an infallible answer. 
Any one who has any doubt about the manner in 
which the pull is produced can try it for himself. 

I told him to make a mark on the grass with a 
spot of whitewash that would go through to the 
earth, or to make a small white line on the line to 
the hole, to place the ball on this, and then on the 
far side of the line and starting opposite the front 
of the ball to put up a row of matches or invisible 
wires at right angles to the line. This done, he 
was to address the ball and play a straight drive 
down the line to the hole. 

He would thus discover when he had plenty of 
room for a straight drive ; and he could verify his 
conclusions by driving another straight ball or two. 
This done, he was to count the number of matches 
or wires left standing, to replace the ball in exactly 



THE NEW GOLF i8i 

the same place, and to play a pull. If lie would 
come to me and tell me that under these conditions 
he could play a pull without knocking down more of 
his pegs than he had carried away in his straight 
drive I told him that I would give him twenty-five 
dollars for his trouble. 

Duncan went into the matter of the pull and 
then he came to me and said that I was right. He 
made no attempt to collect that twenty-five dollars 
and I never asked him about his experiments. I 
do not know to this day what he did to satisfy him- 
self ; but I used diagrammatic photographs of him 
in Modern Golf showing that the pull is played as 
I say it is, and not as the books of the most famous 
authors describe it — for that is an impossibility; 
and we have James Braid's word for it, if cor- 
roboration of mine were wanting, for a fact that 
seems fairly plain, that one must not try to do any- 
thing to the ball during impact. 

There is a very persistent idea with many golf- 
ers that the correct way to play the pull is to cock 
up the toe of the club, turn it in towards the hole 
a little, and then play the stroke in the ordinary 
way. This means, of course, that the player is 
relying for that spin, which is the essence of the 
pull, on the action of the obliquely placed face 
being driven down the straight line. 

Some small amount of spin no doubt would en- 



i82 THE NEW GOLF 

sue. Personally I do not believe that the players 
who address the ball in this uncanny manner get 
the pull in the manner they think they do, and I am 
prepared to give my reasons for this. 

If the face of the club is turned over with the toe 
forward, and the drive then played in the usual 
way, I am sure that so far from starting the pull 
as a pull, it would go for what is called a pull in 
cricket — that is, a ball that is hit across the wicket, 
or, in golf, across the line of flight. I do not deny 
that a certain amount of spin may be got in this 
manner, but ! do not think that enough of it can 
be got to make the stroke worthy of comparison 
with the true pull as explained by me. 

It is not surprising that this idea should have 
such a strong hold. Some of the most eminent 
men have delivered lectures or written papers, 
which rank in the history of the game, wherein 
their assumption has been that the spin of a golf 
ball is obtained in a manner almost if not exactly 
similar, from a mechanical point of view, to that 
advanced as being the method of production in the 
pull. 

The main difference between their contention 
and that of those who think the pull is got this way 
is that they believe the beneficial backspin in golf 
is obtained by the lofted face of the club passing 
swiftly across the intended line of flight of the golf 



THE NEW GOLF 183 

ball in the same plane as such intended line of 
flight, as for instance in the push stroke, whereas 
the pullers are merely, in effect, applying the same 
theory, but are endeavoring to tilt the plane of the 
ball's flight over, so that the ^'loft" would exert 
its influence mainly sidewise and not, as usual, 
vertically. The idea has arisen in each case, I be- 
lieve, from a misconception that is fundamental, 
namely from an error as to the one and only func- 
tion of ''loft" in a golf club, which, as its name, 
'4oft" or ''lift" implies, is to get the ball up into 
the air. The other things have to be done by the 
player. 

If this idea were sound I should have con- 
structed and placed on the market special clubs 
called pullers, slicers and pushers with which one 
could play the same shot with three ditf erent clubs 
and yet produce the three widely different strokes 
named. 

This really is not such a wild idea as it may 
seem. At one time I really had thought of it. If 
this method of cocking up the toe and turning the 
face over really is a good method of getting the 
pull why should one not experiment and get a club 
made so that when it is soled it is set just exactly 
right for the stroke. I think this club would sell — 
if it would do the work ! 

The idea of making the clubs as much alike as 



i84 THE NEW GOLF 

possible in weight, length, grip and every other 
way is good and will no doubt be carried much 
further in the future than it is now. Some years 
ago, when I had more time to spare than I have 
now, I made some experiments with a cleek. By 
taking the same cleek and putting the weight 
mainly at the bottom and then nearer up to the 
middle and finally a little higher one gets with 
exactly the same stroke three entirely different 
results. This is true in many important points 
of all clubs, and probably nobody would venture 
to deny the advisability of making the club do as 
much as possible in a game where the call for me- 
chanical accuracy is so insistent as it is in golf. 

Curiously enough, exactly the same delusion 
about the right method of obtaining top-spin exists 
in tennis as there is about obtaining the modified 
top-spin of the pull in golf. Numerous writers 
advise the player to wait until he feels the ball on 
the racket and then to whip his wrist up, thus giv- 
ing a roll to the ball. Others again, amongst them 
an ex-champion of the United States, advises play- 
ers at the moment to impact to have the face of the 
racket overhanging the ball — that is, with the top 
side of the frame nearer the net than the bottom. 
It is to me amazing that such manifest errors are 
allowed to go forth associated with names that 
do undoubtedly carry weight What would be 



#™ 



% 




CI, 
o 
H 




THE NEW GOLF 185 

thought of me if I suggested altering the loft of a 
driver into an overhang! "Well, tennis has not a 
special set of mechanical laws for itself and if the 
ball is below the height of the net, whether it is in 
the air as a tennis ball, or on the ground as a golf 
ball, there is only one thing that will lift it to the 
place to which one desires it to go and that is loft. 
If it is not provided on the striking implement the 
player, as in tennis, must provide it or the ball 
refuses to go up. No overhang, in golf or tennis, 
can be of service in getting the ball up. There 
may possibly be a chance of taking a theoretical 
objection to this statement. Were the ball just a 
few inches below the tape a stroke with a vertical 
racket might, on account of the adhesion, carry it 
up so that it would go over, but even here we should 
have to admit lift, if not loft. 

Both in the drive with top-spin in tennis and in 
the pull in golf the turnover of the right wrist 
has nothing whatever to do with the production 
of the stroke. That comes in the follow-through, 
after the ball has gone on its way, if one has played 
the stroke correctly. An enormous number of re- 
turns are foundered, put into the net or in many 
cases on to the court before the net is reached, 
because players think that this turnover of the 
right wrist comes in at the moment of impact, and 
consequently they get it in much too soon. This 



i86 THE NEW GOLF 

is a fine illustration of the fact that one must not 
attempt to do anything whatever to the ball during 
impact either in golf or tennis. What happens 
then — I cannot say it too often — is merely an in- 
cident of the stroke itself. 

It is worthy of mention that in Advanced Golf 
James Braid shows by photographs the actual 
moment of impact in the pull. There is no sign 
whatever of any turn over of the face of the club 
in this picture, nor does Braid in Advanced Golf 
make this statement about the turn-over, although 
he did in an earlier work. I should think that 
we ought to be able to take this as Braid's con- 
sidered opinion; for the photograph is obviously 
posed, and Braid would have been sure to show 
such an important matter as this turn-over dis- 
tinctly and to comment on it. On the contrary, 
we find him showing that the club returns to the 
ball naturally as in the ordinary address for the 
pull; from which it is evident that Braid now is 
satisfied that he gets his fine low ball by swinging 
out across the line of flight — as indeed nobody who 
has stood behind him and seen him play it could 
doubt. 

There has at various times been much argument 
as to the difference in the flight and run of the 
pull and the slice. We shall have occasion proba- 
bly to consider this matter again in dealing with the 



THE NEW GOLF 187 

flight of the ball. It seems proper however here 
to explain the peculiar characteristics of the flight 
and run of the pull. 

As we have seen the pull is produced by an up- 
ward, outward, glancing blow. The ball goes 
away spinning on an axis which lies over with its 
top end nearer to the player than the bottom. I 
must make this as clear as I possibly can so I must 
risk being precise here. Let us suppose that you 
have just succeeded in playing a perfect pull. 
Now suppose that I am capable of arresting the 
flight of that ball, without interrupting its spin 
and that I get you again to take up your stance 
and address and replace the ball as it was before 
you hit it. You know as well as I do that it would 
spin for a very little while and then subside, but 
before it does this I want you to allow me to 
exercise my powers of imagination or necromancy 
by changing the spinning ball into a boy's peg- 
top still spinning. 

I shall now show you the angle at which that 
top is spinning by placing it where the ball was. 
This is the instant you have to consider. You have 
no concern beyond that, for things would change 
in a way that does not come into golf. You have 
however, seen the top placed down in front of your 
club and at that instant what is happening is this. 
The top is spinning in such a way that the peg 



i88 THE NEW GOLF 

is further from you than the head. The head is 
lying inwards towards you in such a way that if 
the peg ran right through it it would cross the 
place of impact on the face of the club at an angle 
of, roughly say, fifty degrees. 

You will thus see, when you reconvert the top 
into a golf ball, and send it careering on its way 
that the right side is the forward-spinning side 
and that the ball is spinning about an axis, which 
gives it a spin that is not really top spin, but is 
yet very near to it ; in fact, a spin which may justly 
be called modified top spin. As we saw in the 
case of the slice the forward-spinning side gets 
most of the friction. In the pull this is the right 
side, therefore the ball is gradually edged over 
towards the left side. The angle of the axis of 
rotation in the pull is probably greater than I have 
stated. Were this not so there seems to be a great 
probability that this fine ball would yield to the 
seductive influence of gravitation more speedily 
than it does. 

Top spin has no place in golf. It is quite use- 
less in this game. The nearest we get to it is in 
the pull. Ordinary top spin, as many of us know 
to our cost, simply means a vicious duck and some 
run, but it is useless. In the modified top spin 
of the pull we see however considerable benefit. 
When the ball lands the spin is still working ; and 



THE NEW GOLF 189 

on account of the angle of the axis of spin, which 
lies right across the plane of flight, the ball runs 
well until the power of both the stroke and the 
spin, which in this stroke cooperate, is exhausted. 

The simplest explanation that I can give of the 
plane of spin of the pulled ball on landing and of its 
run is furnished by one of the old chameleon tops 
or any similar disc top. Every one has seen such 
a top at the end of its spin wabbling about until 
the outer rim touches whatever it is spinning on. 
Then it grips the floor or table and runs away 
across it. That is why the pulled ball in golf runs 
so well, and if one takes the peg of any of these 
tops as representing the axis of spin of the pulled 
ball in the air one will have a very good idea of 
what is going on during the carry. 

I always call the spin of the pull ''modified top 
spin." I cannot get anything to express it better. 
It always seems to me that this is a ball with an 
admixture of top spin that does its ducking side- 
wise, but at the same time I am more than half in- 
clined to think that at the beginning of the flight 
there is a good deal more cross spin than top spin. 
Probably, however, the axis of spin is altered 
slightly during the flight and almost certainly on 
impact the ball is thrown more into overspin than 
it was originally, for the lower end of the spin- 
ning axis is the first point to be arrested. This 



igo THE NEW GOLF 

naturally throws the top end forward and more 
across the course, thus correcting to a certain ex- 
tent the natural tendency of the ball to run off 
the fairway. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE EYES 

There is some advice that is given to every 
golfer or player about Ms eyes and the ball. 
Every book loudly insists on it, and if anything 
goes wrong with any part of the swing any one 
who can think of nothing else to say says it. I 
should like to see if it is possible to deal intelli- 
gently with the function of the eyes, and also to 
avoid using this parrot-cry of the links. 

One of the main essentials when playing a stroke 
is to keep one's head still. This is not so clearly 
and forcibly insisted on as it should be. One is 
reminded frequently and forcibly of the impor- 
tance of sustained visual operations in relation 
to the ball, but those who insist on this quite lose 
sight of the fact that staring at the ball is not 
really very useful if one is moving one's head 
about, up or down, or backwards or forwards. 

It will be seen that one could concentrate on the 
unoffending little ball a glare of fixed intensity 
that would cause any ordinary man to wilt, and 
could sustain that gaze for ''quite some time," 

191 



192 THE NEW GOLF 

but it would be fruitless, if while this was going 
on (and contemporaneously the gazer was driv- 
ing) he was elevating and depressing the part of 
his anatomy wherein are fixed his hypnotic in- 
struments. 

Obviously then the thing that really matters so 
far as regards the eyes is that the head must, 
during the stroke, be kept in the same position as 
it was in at the address and must not be moved 
until the stroke has been played. 

This is the soundest of sound theory, and despite 
the fact that our weight has to be moving on to the 
ball just before the moment of impact it is probably 
so near actual practice that we may accept it as 
what we all do when we are doing the right thing. 

It really is not necessary that the eyes should 
be directed towards the ball at the moment of im- 
pact for they have fulfilled their function long 
before the clubhead reaches the ball. The arc in 
which the clubhead is to travel is irretrievably 
settled before the club has got within two feet of 
the ball and the eyes are to all intents and pur- 
poses out of business. This is where the trouble 
comes in. We all know the little saying about 
somebody finding mischief for idle hands. Well, 
it's just the same with idle eyes. Having nothing 
else to do in the stroke they naturally want to look 
at the result of their work. That would not be 



THE NEW GOLF 193 

so prejudicial to the stroke if they were located 
anywhere else than in the head or if they would 
move independently of the head. Unfortunately 
they do not. When they cease to regard the ball 
and look up the head goes up too — so does the 
stroke. Therefore we excuse the parrot-cry for 
it conduces to good golf. 

We must remember that once we have settled 
to our stance and address and the cluh has left the 
ball the head should be as immovable as if it were 
held in a vise. The feet also are fixed in their 
position, any moving they do being practically 
just up and down at the heel, so that all the move- 
ment of the golf stroke takes place, until the fol- 
low-through begins, between three fixed points, the 
head and two feet. 

Harry Vardon declares that he can address the 
ball and then drive it nearly as well with his eyes 
shut as when he is looking at it. I have many 
times seen a young American professional address 
the ball, shut his eyes and drive truly and well 
with his face turned up to the sky. It was really 
quite amusing and instructive to watch him. If 
scientific experiments were conducted we should 
be surprised to find how soon in the downward 
stroke the eye ceases to be required. 

It would, however, be unwise to insist too much 
on this ; but it is just as unwise to go to the other 



194 THE NEW GOLF 

extreme, as do so many famous players, and per- 
sist that it is not only necessary but advisable 
to continue gazing at the place where the ball was 
when it has gone. This is really bad golf and 
cannot be defended on any ground except that 
''The greater includes the less" and that if we 
teach them this we may induce them to keep their 
heads still until they have struck the ball ; a thing 
which, in itself, though surrounded with much clat- 
ter and untruth, is good. 

I have pointed out in various places that it is 
quite wrong to continue turf-gazing after the ball 
has gone. There is nothing to be gained by doing 
this, and much to be lost. If one continues to look 
fixedly at the place where the ball was one must 
miss much of the pleasure of one's noblest efforts. 
There is of course another aspect. One may be 
saved some pain, but let us not dwell on this. 

The quite serious side of this long-continued 
regard is however that in sustaining it one is al- 
most sure to keep the head still. This means that 
one 's follow-through is interfered with, for a rigid 
neck and head must interfere with the shoulders. 

I am glad to have Vardon's support in this im- 
portant point. At page 174 of The Complete 
Golfer he says: ''But I do not approve of keep- 
ing the eye fixed upon the place where the ball 
lay, so that the grass is seen after the ball has 



THE NEW GOLF 195 

departed. ' ' He says that you must fixedly regard 
the ball — I refuse to quote his exact words as they 
would defeat my expressed endeavor when I 
started this chapter — "until you have hit it, but 
no longer. You cannot follow through properly 
with a long shot if your eyes remain fastened on 
the ground. Hit the ball, and then let your eye 
pick it up in its flight as quickly as possible. Of 
course this needs skilful timing and management 
but precision will soon become habitual." 

This is undoubtedly sound practical golf. I am 
inclined to think that many American players dis- 
regard it and that their long game suffers for it. 
Stopping the head must inevitably tend to shorten 
one 's stroke and, moreover, it will probably affect 
adversely one 's direction. I am not sure that this 
is the outstanding fault in American driving but 
I have seen a very great deal of it, perhaps not 
enough on which to condemn the follow-through 
generally, but still quite enough to justify my call- 
ing attention to the point. 

Some people may doubt what I say about the 
eyes finishing their function so early in the golf 
stroke. The duration of impact in the drive has 
been measured by an eminent scientist who com- 
putes it at one ten-thousandth of a second. We 
can readily understand that the golf club is travel- 
ing at an extremely rapid rate. Can any one 



196 THE NEW GOLF 

imagine that it would be possible, at say eighteen 
inches from the ball, to readjust successfully the 
line of travel of the club-head, to alter the arc in 
which it had been traveling and to start it going 
in another without absolutely ruining the stroke? 
I should indeed require some imagination to be- 
lieve in this reconstruction. If this cannot be done 
it seems to me to be undoubted that the eyes really 
do fulfil their function extremely early in the golf 
swing, in fact much earlier than I have indicated. 

Consideration of this point naturally causes 
one to come to the conclusion that there is in the 
drive of a vast number of golfers a period before 
impact during which they do not see the club. I 
have no doubt that in Vardon's drive there is a 
period equal to five or six inches, just before im- 
pact, during which he never sees the ball. I have 
no doubt whatever of this. This golfer's *' blind 
spot" exists even with the most accurate players. 
It is found in nearly all sport. It is in tennis very 
marked. The cricketer knows it to his cost. In 
tennis it is astonishing how few balls one sees, 
not on to one's racket, but to within three or four 
inches of it. Of course we all know the old slogan ; 
and we also know how it is honored. 

This blind spot exists also in la-crosse, rackets, 
polo, base-ball, hockey, and even in billiards ; but 
it is almost certain that it becomes less the farther 




© Brown Bros., N. Y. 

JEROME D. TRAVERS 

Top of Swing in the Drive 

This picture shows too much weight on the right leg, bad 

pivoting on the left toe, the left arm too straight 

and the right elbow too high 



THE NEW GOLF 197 

away from the eye the ball is played. It is prob- 
ably least in polo ; and after that there is less of 
it in the golf drive than in any other game. This 
is very fortunate for the golfer, for he already has 
enough with which to contend. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE SHOET SWING 

^'Why is it that they like to swing so much and 
waste so much power, unmindful of the fact that 
the shorter the swing the greater the accuracy?" 

This is a question that, is well worth while pon- 
dering. He who asks it is Harry Vardon. Cer- 
tainly he is speaking about the cleek and the driv- 
ing mashie, but the question may just as perti- 
nently be asked about the wooden clubs. 

I have already set out the principles and practise 
of the drive as played in what is considered the 
most perfect form by men who have spent their 
lives on the links, and there can be no doubt that 
the golf drive when well played in the manner 
described is a very satisfying hit, but to play a 
good game round about the eighties and occasion- 
ally quite a little lower it is not necessary to do it 
that way. 

I myself always had a very free swing, partially 
due in all probability to the defective teaching of 
the old days, which encouraged the bad habit of 

198 



THE NEW GOLF 199 

relaxing the grip with the right at the top of the 
stroke. The teaching then was : grip for all you 
are worth with the left and play about with your 
right — or ''words to that effect," as the constable 
always says when he is giving evidence. At the 
top of my swing I could see the toe of my club 
out of the corner of my left eye, without trying, 
and at the finish it was knocking about my right 
knee. When you get them well with a swing like 
that they go; but I protest that there is about 
twice the necessary energy and half the requisite 
accuracy in such swings. 

In no other game that is known do men use 
such a length of stroke as in the golf swing. If we 
regard the striker as a vertical pillar coming out 
of a horizontal plane we shall find that in almost 
every field sport the blow is struck from about an 
angle of forty-five degrees above the shoulder, that 
is to say the arm and the striking implement are 
raised to an angle of about forty-five degrees with 
the vertical. In the golf stroke the club is carried 
back at least to the horizontal and often below it, 
making in some cases a half circle over and above 
the stroke usually required in athletic games. 

I know the answer that golf is a law unto itself 
— which it is not — and I am not going to argue 
the matter here. I am merely going to set out, for 
the benefit of those who cannot do the full swing, 



200 THE NEW GOLF 

a few things that I know about the short swing 
and some things that I have seen done with it. 

Firstly, be it known that a man can get all the 
length necessary for a very good game with what 
is generally called a three-quarter swing, and 
without lifting his heels from the ground. This 
three-quarter swing goes up about as far as a 
tennis racket does in an ordinary stroke. The 
arms go little if any beyond the angle of forty-five 
degrees I have already referred to. 

The stroke is in all ways played as nearly in 
conformity with the rules for driving as may 
be. It is a very upright stroke. It ceases when 
it begins to be inconvenient by pulling at the left 
heel. The left heel does not, as in the proper golf 
stroke, rise at all, or if at all, very little. As the 
heels do not move the weight remains at the top 
of the swing equally distributed. 

The stroke is, if anything, more of a hit than 
the ordinary drive. Being so short and upright, 
and the player using very little foot work, there is 
a great tendency to hit downwards. This gives 
the greatest of all drives the wind-cheater, the 
drive with back-spin. 

This stroke is not an obsolete stroke. It is a 
stroke of which no man need be ashamed. It is 
specially suitable for old men and stout people; 
and when playing it they need not pity themselves 



THE NEW GOLF 201 

for their lack of form. Rather let them congratu- 
late themselves on being pioneers, for ere long 
many thousands will be following their example. 
This is a method of execution that one would want 
much courage to recommend in preference to the 
orthodox, but there cannot be any doubt whatever 
that many a man who takes to the game late in 
life, who would otherwise never be any good, may 
by this means become a very proficient player. 

There is one man in New York to-day who 
blesses the short swing. He is well along toward 
middle life and a few months ago he was dubbing 
around in a hundred or thereabout. One of my dis- 
ciples whose girth absolutely prohibits him from 
playing anything but a short swing coaxed him into 
giving up his erratic stroke and using the short 
swing. He is a long limber chap who ought to be 
able to play the usual game well enough, but I sup- 
pose it was starting late that bothered him. Well, 
he took to the short swing. It acted like magic. 
Within a few weeks he was down to eighty and how 
far he goes below that, and what he occasionally 
does now I am not going to tell you. It sounds too 
good and it might cause disappointment. The 
change may not suit every one so well ; but it cer- 
tainly worked wonders in his case. Any golfer, 
who is really in trouble, and wants to abandon the 
orthodox swing for the short swing, may know at 



202 THE NEW GOLF 

first-hand how great a change was made in this 
case. 

It must not be thought that because one takes 
to the short swing one needs to abandon all foot 
work, because this is not so. In speaking of the 
flat-footed method I have in mind those elderly or 
stout people for whom much foot and ankle work 
is inadvisable. 

Many years ago, before I ever thought of writ- 
ing a book on golf or anything else, I had a use- 
ful lesson on the value of the short swing. The 
champion of our tennis club was one of those men 
who have a particular faculty for games. He was 
not robust but he had a splendid eye and a wonder- 
ful sense of touch. He was also a fine billiard 
player. 

About this time golf was introduced into our 
town. He stood the talk about it for a year or 
two, then said that he must get after them in self- 
defense. He joined the golf club. They chortled 
in their glee at his swing. He simply played his 
tennis stroke at the ball. His club was practically 
never off the line. They said he was all wrong. 
He was in the habit of thinking for himself. He 
directed their attention to the fact that with much 
less effort and fuss he was getting further than 
their strong men — and much straighter. He 
gently explained to them that his theory of the 



THE NEW GOLF 203 

golf drive was that it was an exaggerated put and 
that he intended to get his results with the least 
possible exaggeration and exertion. They laughed 
much, but he went on his way unperturbed. One 
by one he took their scalps, and soon he was the 
local champion. This, bear in mind, was not the 
case of some poor old man. It was that of a man 
who at the time was good enough, and young 
enough, to win the tennis championship of New 
Zealand, one of the finest players who ever handled 
a racket. Certainly his style was not so pretty as 
some of the others, but it got the results — and that 
is what most golfers want. 

' ' Short swingers ' ' are very often * 'put tappers. ' ' 
I do not know if it is a matter of stroke affinity. 
There is such a thing. What one's service is in 
tennis that almost invariably is his smash. That 
is to a certain extent natural, for one 's first stroke 
is the service and the service and the smash are 
virtually the same strokes. 

My reason for mentioning this is that very often 
the elderly golfer can improve his game very much 
by swinging less in his drive and more in his put. 
This reversal of things has rescued many a man 
from the abyss of golf despair. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE POWER OF THE LEFT 

The hoariest old tradition that ever fastened on 
to golf was the power of the left. It was more 
than a tradition. It was a fetich. Authors and 
journalists worshiped at its shrine. Golfers and 
would-be golfers yielded it the most absolute obe- 
dience, at least in word and thought, although so 
many of these performed so exceedingly well with 
their clubs that there is grave doubt if they put 
their religion into practical use, even as it is to- 
day with many other religions. 

I have already referred in passing to this most 
persistently fostered and very injurious idea. It 
is not indeed remarkable that this very great mis- 
take has been handed down and kept going through 
the years. Practically every great golfer has 
. succumbed to the fairy tale. Now, in this matter 
I want to tell you quite plainly that there are no 
half measures with me. This is a straight clean- 
cut issue. "When I have said what I have to say 
on this matter you are for me or against me on a 
matter that is another of golf's fundamentals, that 

204 



THE NEW GOLF 205 

is of importance equal to, if not greater than, tlie 
question of tlie distribution of weight at the top 
of the swing. I shall present to you a mass of 
authority in favor of this superstition. I shall 
tell you what I think about the subject and, so far 
as you personally are concerned, I must leave the 
verdict in your hands although truth to tell I have 
small doubt as to what it will be. 

We must in the first place see what the great 
golfers have to say about it. 

At page 61 of The Complete Golfer Harry Var- 
don says: "The grip with the first finger and 
thumb of my right hand is exceedingly firm, and 
the pressure of the little finger on the knuckle of 
the left hand is very decided. In the same way 
it is the thumb and first finger of the left hand 
that have most of the gripping work to do. Again, 
the palm of the right hand presses hard against 
the thumb of the left. In the upward swing this 
pressure is gradually decreased, until when the 
club reaches the turning point there is no longer 
any such pressure ; indeed, at this point the pahn 
and the thumb are barely in contact." 

Let me say before I forget it that I earnestly 
advise every one to forget the tight and loose finger 
''dope." This is golf we are dealing with, not 
music, and the shaft of a golf club does not respond 
to this treatment as do the strings of a violin or 



2o6 THE NEW GOLF 

a banjo. There is quite enough to think of dur- 
ing the golf swing without trying to hand out piece 
work to special fingers. If I wanted to make you 
think that I know much more than I do about 
golf I should start analyzing the finger hold and 
apportioning the special duty to each joint. Such 
stuff is mere futility. At the top of the swing grip 
as fast as sin sticks to normal man and never let 
up, never think of anything else but hitting the 
ball until it is sailing away. 

I know one professional whose great pride it 
is that he lets his forefinger wave about while he 
is playing his stroke. He has his reasons for it. 
I forget them, but probably he uses it to point out 
where the ball ought to go — ^but does not. 

If Vardon really did these funny stunts, what 
he has done with them would have to command 
one's respectful attention; but when one knows 
that this great player will not say this foolishness 
to one, has one to swallow it because an enterpris- 
ing publisher hired a wordy journalist to make a 
book of a certain size to take its place in a cer- 
tain series. I think not ; nay, so far as I am con- 
cerned, I know that I shall not, as they say in 
America, ''stand for it." The comfort and con- 
venience of the great body of golfers are of much 
greater importance than a question of publisher's 
royalties, and I am convinced that Vardon him- 



THE NEW GOLF 207 

self would wish to stop this out-of-date doctrine 
from affecting the game prejudicially. 

Vardon continues: ''The release is a natural 
one, and will, or should, come naturally to the 
player for the purpose of allowing the head of the 
club to swing well and freely back. But the grip 
of the thumb and first finger of the right hand, 
as well as that of the little finger upon the knuckle 
of the first finger of the left hand, is still as firm 
as at the beginning. ' ' 

From this you will observe that you are still 
gripping firmly at each side of your hand, that is 
to say with the little finger and the forefinger and 
easing up or playing about with the second and 
third fingers. Try it, brother golfer, put your 
mind into it during your stroke, then try to get 
it and use it subconsciously, or do the right thing 
— and forget it. 

Vardon does not anywhere expressly say, so far 
as I know, that the left hand and arm are the 
dominant factors in the golf stroke, but right 
throughout his work he infers that they are. 

At page 126 of The Complete Golfer he says, 
speaking of the approach shot with the mashie: 
' ' This is one of the few shots in golf in which the 
right hand is called upon to do most of the work, 
and that it may be encouraged to do so the hold 
with the left hand should be slightly relaxed;" 



2o8 THE NEW GOLF 

and at page 147, in treating of putting, lie says: 
^'But in this part of the game it is quite clear that 
the right hand has more work to do than the 
left." 

The curious thing is that, notwithstanding these 
statements, there is not in The Complete Golfer, 
nor so far as I know in any other well-known work 
on golf, a specific description of any stroke 
wherein the work is done mainly by the left hand 
and arm. 

There cannot be any doubt, although he does not 
say so in so many words, that Vardon wishes to 
convey the idea that the influence of the left hand 
and arm is predominant in the majority of golf 
strokes. 

We must now turn to James Braid for light on 
this subject. At page 55 of How to Play Golf we 
find: **A word about the varying pressure of the 
grip with each hand. In the address the left hand 
should just be squeezing the handle of the club, 
but not so tightly as if one were afraid of losing 
it. The right hand should hold the club a little 
more loosely. The left hand should hold firmly 
all the way through. The right will open a little 
at the top of the swing to allow the club to move 
easily, but it should automatically tighten itself 
in the downward swing" — which by the way, I may 
say, that Vardon very wisely warns one against. 




© Brown Bros., N. Y. 

FRANCIS OUIMET 
■ Top of Swing in the Drive 



THE NEW GOLF 209 

for tlie obvious reason that one is practically sure 
to go into the tightening up process at an incon- 
venient moment. 

If I were not a person of infinite patience and 
some degree of civilization this kind of stuff would 
make me write things that I know that I should 
never dream of wanting to say to Braid or Var- 
don, for the very good reason that they would 
never make the curious statements that are as- 
cribed to them. 

This ' ' opening up " of the right hand at the top 
of the swing is wrong, absolutely wrong. Braid 
himself in another book says so. Let us turn 
to what he says about the top of the swing in 
Advanced Golf: ''Now for the return journey. 
Here at the top, arms, wrists, body — all are in their 
highest state of tension." 

Now how can "arms, wrists, body," all, be ''in 
their highest state of tension," if the right hand 
is to " open a little at the top of the swing to allow 
the club to move easily"? 

The instructions are absolutely contradictory. 
I may therefore be excused if I take the liberty 
of saying that all advice from any one about eas- 
ing up and fooling about in any part of the golf 
swing before impact should be forgotten. It is 
business from the moment one picks up one's club 
after addressing the ball; and at the top of the 



210 THE NEW GOLF 

drive it is tension, tlie highest tension from the 
word "go." In fact to quote Braid ''hard at it" 
from the beginning of the downward swing. 

How is it possible for the right hand to ''au- 
tomatically tighten itself in the downward swing" 
if it is already in its "highest state of tension," 
when it is at the top of its swing and Braid gives 
explicit instructions that it must be kept in this 
condition until the moment of impact? 

Braid at page 57 of Advanced Golf says of this 
part of the swing: "Every muscle and joint in 
the human golfing machinery is wound up to the 
highest point." The student of the golf swing 
will do well to remember this sentence. I have 
put it in italics. Eemember also that Braid is 
speaking of the start of the downward swing. 
Eemember too, if it is correct, as it practically is, 
that there is nothing here about slack fingers or a 
predominant left hand but just that ' ' every muscle 
and joint" is in it and is "wound up to the highest 
point. ' ' 

Now we must take the testimony of J. H. Taylor. 
At page 193 of Taylor on Golf we are told: "My 
contention is simply this: that the grasp of the 
right hand upon the club must be sufficiently firm 
in itself to hold it steady and true, but it must not 
be allowed on any account to over-power the left. 
The idea is that the latter arm must exercise a 



THE NEW GOLF 211 

predominant influence in every stroke that may be 
played. As regards my own position in the mat- 
ter, my grip with either hand is very firm, yet I 
should hesitate before I told every golfer to go 
and do likewise." 

I am surprised to note Taylor's hesitation. If 
his method has been good enough to give him 
his great position, why is it not good enough to 
recommend to those who look to him for guidance ? 
For if ever there was a famous right hand 
''punch" in golf it is what Taylor gets out of his 
trusty right forearm. 

Taylor really is the worst offender of the Tri- 
umvirate in advocating the use of the left; and 
the curious thing is that of the famous three he is 
the outstanding example of a right-handed hit- 
ter. 

At page 107 of Taylor on Golf he says: "The 
club is brought down principally by the left wrist, 
the right doing very little until the hands are op- 
posite the right leg, when it begins to assert itself, 
bringing the full face of the club to the ball." 

Vardon says that any attempt to do this is fatal. 
Braid says "hard at it" from the top and in 
supreme tension. Taylor grips very firmly with 
both hands. Where, oh where, can this easing up 
and tightening up and bowing and scraping, the 
right to the left, come in? The answer is 



212 THE NEW GOLF 

nowhere. It is one of the useless traditions that 
have been copied out of one golf book into another 
without proper thought or analysis. 

Bear with me yet a little while, for this may 
mean no less than a revolution of your game and 
I want you to hear what the greatest golfers have 
to say before I show you some of the points which 
seem to me to bear on it. 

Taylor is most emphatic about it. At page 90 
of Taylor on Golf we read: ''The right hand is 
naturally the stronger of the two — much more 
powerful in the average man than the left — and 
the learner is just as naturally prone to use it. 
But in the game of golf he must keep in front of 
him at all times the fact that the left hand should 
fill the position of guide, and it must have the pre- 
dominating influence over the stroke. 

''That this is rather unnatural I am perfectly 
willing to admit. Its being unnatural is the basis 
of its great difficulty, but it is a difficulty that must 
needs be grappled with and overcome by any man 
who desires to play the game as it should be 
played. ' ' 

Well, Taylor himself has not grappled with it 
and overcome it ; yet there are very few who would 
be bold enough to say that he does not "play the 
game as it should be played." 

Is it not curious how Vardon wants us to search 



THE NEW GOLF 213 

for the particular style of putting Dame Nature 
put up for us and Taylor wants us to fly in her face 
and shoo her away? Verily in the trinity of coun- 
selors there is confusion. 

In the volume on Golf in The Badminton Li- 
brary, Mr. Horace Hutchinson says at page 85: 
''Since, as will be shown later on, the club has to 
turn in the right hand at a certain point in the 
swing, it should be held lightly in the fingers, 
rather than in the palm, with that hand. In the 
left hand it is to be held well home in the palm, and 
it is not to stir from this position throughout the 
swing. It is the left hand, mainly, that communi- 
cates the power of the swing, the chief function 
of the right hand is as a guide in direction. ' ' 

Again at page 87 Mr. Hutchinson continues: 
' ' So much, then, for the grip. Now, when the club, 
in the course of its swing away from the ball, is 
beginning to rise from the ground, and is reaching 
the horizontal with its head pointing to the player's 
left, it should be allowed to turn naturally in the 
right hand until it is resting upon the web between 
the forefinger and the thumb. ' ' 

Mr. Hutchinson is a well-known golfer and golf 
writer in England, and I do not know any English 
golfer whose opinion would be received with more 
respect than his ; yet we see that he subscribes to 
the popular idea of the power of the left. At 



214 THE NEW GOLF 

least we have here his written statement and I 
have not seen any recantation of it. 

It will indeed be hard to fit in James Braid's 
instructions in Advanced Golf with Mr. Hutchin- 
son's ideas. 

I have now shown you the ideas of three of the 
greatest golfers of all time and of one of England's 
most distinguished amateurs. Surely this is a 
weight of authority to stagger up against. Per- 
haps my best way is to tell here how I did it in 
London. 

I wrote an article which was published in The 
Evening Standard called, if I remember, ''The 
Power of the Left," in which I ridiculed the moldy 
old idea. To my surprise, on opening my paper I 
found the main leader, or as we say in America, 
editorial, devoted to my article and saying that I 
was putting forth what was actually "a new dy- 
namics in golf" and much more to the same effect. 

Then I was in the thick of it. Anybody who 
bursts up any useless old tradition, or even gives 
it a bump, in London, is a fool, a faddist, a theorist, 
or a revolutionist. If he does not recognize this 
before he disturbs any of the dust of centuries, 
and if he is not prepared to accept the position 
kindly and patiently — and temporarily — ^he de- 
serves all that is coming to him — and that is 
much. 



THE NEW GOLF 215 

Much came to me, both in poetry and prose. I 
give here a sample of the poetry. This was pub- 
lished in Truth. I thought it rather amusing. At 
light verse of this description some of the English 
writers are extraordinarily good. 

THE LEFT HAND'S LAMENT 

(Picked up on the links at St. Andrews) 

Since first by Heaven's august decree 
The Royal Ancient game was planned 
I always was allowed to be 
The Master Hand. 

To me did textbooks all allot 
The part of propulsative strength; 
The raking drive, the brassie shot — 
I gave them length. 

The Right Hand was — poor thing — designed 
To guide the club, and that was all; 
Mine was the power that lay behind 
The far-hit ball. 

Now comes there one upon the scene 
Whose heresy fair turns me pale. 
The Arius of the golfing green — 
A wretch named Vaile. 

He says our Vardons, Braids and Whites 
Don't golf's dynamics understand; 
Their view of me's all wrong; the Right's 
The master hand. 



2i6 THE NEW GOLF 

If fate would let me but devise 
Some torture for this villain bold 
Who thus vsrould revolutionize 
Golf's credos old. 

Oh, then to ball of rubber core 
I'd change him for a tidy spell 
And drop him in ''The Swilcan" or 
"The Burn" or "Hell." 

I'd lose him in the rock-strewn sand 
Whence few topped spheres ejected come 
Of Musselburgh's notorious Pand- 
Emonium. 

What I had to put up with in prose was not 
nearly so amusing and it was not at all clever. 
The new idea had stricken the golf writers stupid. 
They wished to know how I could possibly know, 
for I hadn't found it out in Fleet Street. 

When some degree of calm had been restored, 
The Evening Standard published an interview 
with Greorge Duncan in which the famous young 
Scotchman not only said in the most unqualified 
manner that I was right, but gave the golf public 
something else to think over. 

I have already indicated that Duncan is of an 
inquiring turn of mind. When the controversy 
started he went out and drove many balls, some 
with both hands, some with his right alone, and 



THE NEW GOLF 217 

some with his left alone. He found that driving 
with the right hand only he could get nearly as 
far as with both hands and that his direction 
was practically as good. He found that his at- 
tempt to drive with the left hand unaided was 
practically a failure both as regards length and 
direction. I pity the person who is foolish enough 
to try to argue this dour young Scot into the idea 
that his left hand is more useful to him in the drive 
than his right. 

There is one question on which I always upset 
the left-handed theorists. They argue that the left 
is the predominant influence and so on, after the 
manner of the golf books. I then ask them, if 
this is so, why left-handed players always, or prac- 
tically always, throw away this inestimable ad- 
vantage of having their most important hand 
placed by our good old friend Mother Nature in 
the most important position, turn themselves round 
and get special clubs made for them, and moreover 
use them mutatis mutandis in just the same man- 
ner as we poor right-handed players do. They 
never have a satisfactory answer for this. When 
in addition to this I ask them how it is that neither 
professionals nor books ever advocate the practise 
of left-handers learning the game with the right- 
handed clubs, they begin to display signs of res- 



2i8 THE NEW GOLF 

tiveness ; and I know tliat it is advisable to change 
the subject to the beneficial effects of irrigation — 
which generally goes better about this time. 

I say, without any qualification whatever, that 
all this stuff about the left being the predominant 
partner in the golf stroke is false teaching of the 
most pernicious nature. The right hand and arm 
are undoubtedly the predominating force, but just 
as certainly as this is the fact, so is it absolutely 
essential to good golf that once one has realized 
this eminently sensible and natural arrangement 
one shall immediately forget it, for this is where it 
is right to leave it to Mother Nature. This is one 
thing in golf in which one may trust her abso- 
lutely and never regret it. It should no more be on 
one's mind that the right is master than is the 
problem as to which foot one is using at a particu- 
lar moment. The matter is so perfectly adjusted 
and regulated by nature if the mechanical details 
of the swing are attended to that any conscious 
attempt to think of the relative power of either 
hand, arm or wrist is a work of supererogation, 
and in golf there is no room for anything like 
this. 

The mischievous thing about the fetich of the 
left is, that as Taylor says, it is unnatural. One 
has to think always to do anything that is un- 
natural. 



THE NEW GOLF 219 

It is not the interference of tlie right arm that 
is to blame for thousands of ruined Strokes that 
go down to its discredit. It is a case of giving a 
dog a bad name. The left really is in a vast 
majority of cases the guilty party without its guilt 
ever being suspected. It has heard the old, old 
story of the vice of the right, and it is always on 
the look-out for a chance to slip in in front of it 
and frustrate its evil designs on the ball. I need 
not detail the woful results in slices and loss of 
distance that ensue. 

A chain is no stronger than its weakest link. 
Speed is of the essence of the golf stroke. It 
stands to reason that if the right has to wait on the 
left we are going to lose speed and after what 
George Duncan has shown us we can have little 
doubt about which arm furnishes the greater 
power. 

If we have established the fact that the right 
is the dominant partner in the swing it seems that 
it strengthens my remarks about the new overlap- 
ping grip which gives the right hand a fuller grip 
of the club than the left. When I know a thing, or 
am fairly sure about it, I have no hesitation in 
stating my opinion. If I know it, or think I know 
it, I sometimes state it rather positively. If I am 
only fairly sure I put it forward tentatively, as I 
am doing in this matter of the new grip, but there 



220 THE NEW GOLF 

are two points about it which I think are worthy 
of consideration. 

In the present grip, at the moment of impact 
the left hand is farther from the ball than the 
right. At the same time the right hand, which is 
necessarily the nearer to the ball, has a less full 
grip than the left as the little finger is placed 
upon the forefinger of the left hand. It is always 
the shaft horse that bears the load. Which is the 
shaft horse as between the left hand and the right ; 
and since when, pray, has it been good harness- 
ing to put the saddle on the leader ? 

As bearing on this question of the right-handed 
grip being made fuller than in the ordinary over- 
lap I may tell an interesting anecdote. Some 
years ago a golfer who was good enough to remove 
Mr. John Ball from the Amateur Championship 
lost his left thumb at the second joint. After his 
misfortune he found, much to his surprise, that he 
was driving a much longer ball than he was getting 
before. 

The golf scribes were much exercised over this, 
but nobody suggested any explanation. The one 
that readily suggests itself is that his accident put 
his right hand into a more natural place on the 
shaft than it had had before and closer to his left 
hand. If this golfer were to use the overlapping 
grip suggested by me he would probably have an 




ROBERT A. GARDNER 
Finish of Drive 



THE NEW GOLF 221 

ideal golf grip for he would have a full right hand 
hold, be close up against the left without any in- 
terference by the thumb, and by overlapping with 
his left fore-finger on the right little finger he 
would bring the wrists well together. I am afraid 
that the grip, obtained in this way, will never be 
popular; but, without sacrificing any portion of 
one's anatomy, the new grip is well worth an in- 
telligent and exhaustive trial, especially by those 
who favor the short swing, for, as I think I have 
pointed out, if one grips like this and holds the 
club firmly throughout the swing, it is practically 
impossible to overswing. 

The main trouble in connection with golf writ- 
ing is that nearly all the great professionals have 
thousands of books in circulation telling unfor- 
tunate golfers how to become great by a route that 
they themselves never traveled. Needless to say 
the handicap to the ordinary golfer is immense. 
If I merely sat down and wrote the truth I could 
excuse any one who used the weight of sixteen 
open championships and many others against me. 
It is quite another thing when I show how clearly 
the winners of these championships contradict each 
other, and even themselves, and I then put the sim- 
ple obvious truth before the inquirer and say, 
' ' Now shed the light of your reason on it, my lad. ' ' 
It really is very simple when you have it explained 



222 THE NEW GOLF 

by some one who knows, who is not merely grop- 
ing for words, more words, mere words. Ver- 
biage, verbosity, verbigeration, truly your com- 
posite name in English is golf book! 

I have received letters of thanks and acknow- 
ledgments of all kinds from all parts of the world 
from people whom I have released from the thral- 
dom of the fetich of the left. Here is what an 
American professional at San Antonio, Texas, has 
to say: ''It has taken me years of persistent ef- 
fort to bury the many prejudices against the 
proper use of the right arm, but they must go, and 
I am glad to see you have voiced sentiments strong 
enough to make men stop and think over the situa- 
tion. Let us hope they will act." 

In which pious hope I naturally join; and with 
that I am content now to leave the final judgment 
—so far as it affects you — with you. 



CHAPTEE XVI 

THE GOLF CLUB 

Golf is so well played nowadays that it is 
scarcely exaggeration to call it an exact science. 
Certainly those who excel at it require to play it 
with almost mathematical precision. For this rea- 
son, if for no other, it behooves the intelligent 
player to see to it that he is provided with the best 
possible implements wherewith to play the game. 

Consideration of this question opens up at once 
a wide field of debate which goes to the very heart 
of the principle of the modem golf club. Origi- 
nally every ball-striking implement was crooked, 
or curved. The cricket-bat was a kind of curved 
club. It has been straightened. The *'crosse" 
used in la-crosse was originally so made that the 
blow fell off the line of the handle. That has now 
been altered. The tennis racket was in the old 
days lop-sided. Even the billiard cue was crooked, 
the original billiard cue being shaped like the 
ladies' bagatelle cue. 

These, however, have all been straightened, and 
there is a general tendency on the part of all ball 

223 



224 THE NEW GOLF 

striking implements to come into line with the 
principle of having the point of impact in line with 
the shaft or handle. 

This is shown in a marked degree even in those 
clubs or bats which retain the curve or angle be- 
tween the shaft or handle and the striking portion. 
For instance, the hockey-stick has had its head 
much curtailed in order to bring the striking point 
nearer to the handle, as it is recognized that this 
gives greater power and accuracy. 

Those who are familiar with the construction of 
the old golf clubs will remember that the head was 
very long. In the modern golf club, especially in 
the driver, the tendency is to ''ball" the head as 
close as possible to the shaft, and Harry Vardon 
in The Complete Golfer says that this tendency is 
justified by results. 

There cannot be the least possible doubt of this. 
The tendency to put the point of impact in line 
with the shaft marks the irresistible march of 
progress in the evolution of ball striking imple- 
ments and in due course the golf club must both 
metaphorically and actually ''come into line." 

In the "Schenectady" putter, a very well-known 
club, the principle was carried a step farther, inas- 
much as the shaft was made to come out of the 
head very nearly at the center. This was a per- 
fectly proper and legitimate development of the 



THE NEW GOLF 225 

golf club, but this club was barred by the Royal 
and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews on its links. 
The United States Golf Association very properly 
ignored the ruling and the ''Schenectady" remains 
to this day one of the most popular putters in 
America. 

In the ''Vaile" putter I have carried the center 
shafted principle to the full length. The shaft 
runs in a straight line towards the center of the 
club 's face, but at about two inches from the head 
the socket turns at an angle and runs into the heel 
of the club. 

Neither of these clubs contains any principle 
which is not expressed and embodied in the time- 
honored St. Andrews putter with its curved shaft. 
Instead of allowing the curve to sprawl all over 
the shaft I have concentrated it at the socket. My 
putter is simply a modernized form of the revered 
St. Andrews putter. I put it up to the rules com- 
mittee of The Eoyal and Ancient Club to say 
whether my club was a legal club or not on their 
links. I had an object in doing so. 

They decided that it was not a legal club. Then 
I showed them what they had done by the famous 
— or infamous — ''mallet" resolution. They had 
barred the old ' ' St. Andrews ' ' putter and almost 
every club in every bag on every links. Certainly 
every socketed driver is an illegal club ; so also is 



226 THE NEW GOLF 

every iron club where the shaft runs into the head, 
for, according to their ruling, the head must be 
''all on one side of the shaft"! 

It is of course sheer futility to speak of the 
''Schenectady" as a mallet-headed club. Any 
mallet I ever used or saw was longer in the driv- 
ing line than across it. That is the essential prin- 
ciple of a mallet, it seems to me. How then can 
the "Schenectady" be called a club made on the 
mallet principle. 

I am dealing at length with this matter, for I 
am sure that it is of fundamental importance to 
the game and that it will recur again and again 
and ultimately in such an acute form that prob- 
ably The Eoyal and Ancient Club will have to re- 
consider its ill-advised attempt to define, or par- 
tially to define, a golf club. 

More than seventy per cent, of the golf clubs 
now used are illegal according to the rules of St. 
Andrews. The position of this club in the world 
of golf is quite anomalous, is not for the best in- 
terest of the game, and should be altered. Noth- 
ing more ridiculous can very well be imagined than 
the simple fact that on St. Andrews your open 
champion is not allowed to use his favorite putter, 
an implement whose fame was made by another 
American golfer, who mainly by its assistance won 
the British amateur championship. 



THE NEW GOLF 227 

The marcli of progress is closer and ever closer 
towards the shaft, and its ''logical conclusion," 
to use the well-worn phrase, will not have been 
reached until we are driving from a point in line 
with the shaft of the club. When this is done 
there will be increased accuracy in the game and 
increased enjoyment in it for many thousands of 
players who now suffer because of the unscientific 
construction of the golf club. 

The American is a keen and analytical sports- 
man. He is already on the way to the truth ; but 
in the Schenectady putter he is merely paltering 
with the principle. He is only half way to the 
actual thing. It will not be long before this is 
realized and then we shall see a revolution in the 
manufacture of golf clubs. 

Vardon's actual words in speaking of the short 
head were : ' ' The tendency of late years has been 
to make the heads of wooden clubs shorter and 
still shorter, and this tendency is well justified. ' ' 

Perhaps the greatest structural defect in golf 
clubs outside of that already mentioned is the nar- 
row face. Far too many golf clubs have narrow 
faces. Generally speaking the narrow faced club 
is a delusion and a snare. Eather should the faces 
be deeper. Especially is this so with many 
wooden clubs. I am convinced that without alter- 
ing the balance or adjustment of weight materially 



228 THE NEW GOLF 

it would be an improvement to give many of the 
wooden clubs a little more depth in the face. As 
they are now they lack ''room" for some of the 
finest shots in the game. 

The American rule on the subject of the con- 
struction of golf clubs reads as follows : 

Form and make of golf clubs. 

The United States Golf Association will not 
sanction any substantial departure from the tra- 
ditional and accepted form and make of golf clubs, 
which, in its opinion, consists of a plain head shaft 
and a head which does not contain any mechanical 
contrivance, such as springs; it also regards as 
illegal the use of such clubs as those of the mallet- 
headed type, or such clubs as have the neck so bent 
as to produce a similar effect. 

The shaft of a putter may be fixed at the heel 
or at any other point in the head. 

The term mallet-headed, as above used, when 
applied to putters, does not embrace putters of the 
so-called Schenectady type. U. S. G. A. 

I think it was a great pity that the United States 
followed St. Andrews' questionable lead in any 
way. The good sense and sportsmanlike spirit 
of the golfer would at all times have been sufficient 
safeguard for the interests of the game. As the 



THE NEW GOLF 229 

rule at present stands it is bad. The full inter- 
pretation of the St. Andrews authorities about the 
head being all on one side of the shaft is not in- 
cluded in the copy of the rules that I have. 

Under the American rules one might be excused 
for asking how can the neck of a club be so bent 
as to produce a mallet effect. What they really 
mean, but do not express, is a center shaft effect, 
and it would indeed be a great mistake if they were 
to try to introduce such legislation. A club with 
the center shafted effect is always a better driver 
than one with a straight handle, if the effect is 
properly obtained. 

A friend one day handed me an old driver and 
said, "I cannot understand how it is, Vaile, I can 
always get thirty yards farther with this club than 
any other and I am always on the line with it. 
Can you explain iti" 

I ran my eye along the shaft and saw that it had 
a most pronounced warp so that it was bowed 
quite a lot towards the line of flight, speaking now 
of the club as at the address. I told my friend 
that he had, in effect, a center shafted club for the 
warp in his shaft was the same thing as the curve 
in the old St. Andrews putter and as my angle at 
the neck of the Vaile clubs, that he had by accident 
got hold of a club that was scientifically con- 
structed or had taken on a proper shape on ac- 



230 THE NEW GOLF 

count of climatic effect. There is a young pro- 
fessional in America who strips the shaft of every 
driver he gets until he produces this effect. He is 
one of the longest and straightest drivers in Amer- 
ica. I sometimes wonder what would be the result 
if some cantankerous person seriously challenged 
the stupid "anti-mallet" rule. As a matter of 
fact there never was any necessity for it. It really 
started from the innocent question of a little club 
in New Zealand called the Nga Motu Golf Club. 
They made golf history by asking if it was legal 
for one to use a club fashioned like a small cro- 
quet mallet. St. Andrews seized on the oppor- 
tunity to perform a work of supererogation and 
used its official position to oppose the scientific 
evolution of the golf club. 

Can any one imagine a person, in an event of 
any importance, daring to appear on a green with 
*'a small croquet mallet"? I think not, indeed. 
Nor would any one who knew anything about golf 
be so stupid as to try to do so, for, as I have 
shown, the deep (in this case it would be the long) 
sole is an added chance of error, without any 
adequate advantage that cannot be obtained bet- 
ter in another way; for instance, by shifting the 
shaft of the ''Schenectady" into the center of the 
club, or, rather, so that the center line of its shaft 
cuts the point of impact, thus making it a true 



THE NEW GOLF 231 

center-shafted club and therefore a better golf im- 
plement than it now is. If this were done, nobody 
with any sense of the meaning of words could 
speak of its mallet principle, unless perchance the 
owner took to putting with the actual heel instead 
of the face ! 



CHAPTER XVn 

THE GOLF BAUL. 

I DO not intend to inflict on my readers a history 
of the evolution of the golf ball. There is really 
comparatively little to tell that is not generally 
known of the outstanding characteristics of the 
ball since the days of the old feather ball, down 
through the ' * guttie, ' ' which we then thought was 
the last word in golf balls, until the rubber-core 
passed it into the ranks of the '^ has-beens." 

What the golfer of to-day is concerned with is 
the ball he now uses, and in that he has a very 
great, in fact a consuming, interest. I had this 
brought home to me in a most remarkable manner 
in London some years ago. I had written for 
various reviews, magazines and newspapers 
articles on almost everything connected with golf. 
I had had no cause to complain of any lack of in- 
terest in my articles. I generally approached my 
subject from an angle different from the ordinary 
view-point, and until one earns one's right to do 
this in London it comes nigh to sacrilege ; indeed, 

232 



r 


^ 


_ 1 




1 / 






^^Hp 





© Brown Bros., N. Y. 

CHARLES EVANS, JR. 
Finish of Drive 



THE NEW GOLF 233 

when golf is the subject, it is a question if it is 
not more than sacrilege to introduce new thought, 
even gently to agitate the cobwebs of tradition. 

Well, as I have said, I had plenty of evidence 
of general interest in my work ; but one day I took 
it into my head to attack the marking of the 
modern golf ball, as being unscientific in the ex- 
treme and prejudicial to the flight and accuracy 
of the ball. My objection rested mainly on two 
grounds, that it was by excrescence instead of by 
indentation, and that in any case the marking 
was excessive. 

This controversy was easily the greatest in the 
history of golf. It ran for four months, and dur- 
ing that period many interesting and amusing 
things were said and done. 

I shall never forget the look on the face of the 
editor of The Evening Standard, who published 
my first article on the subject, when I said to him 
simply — and modestly I hope — '^I am going to 
knock the pimple off the golf ball. ' ' 

* ' That certainly will take some doing, ' ' he said. 
''Yes, indeed," I replied, "but it will be some 
fun" — and it was. Well, the pimple, or bramble, 
has not yet become obsolete, but before many years 
have gone by we shall find it only in museums and 
collections. 

The origin of the marking of the golf ball is 



234 THE NEW GOLF 

fairly well known. The old feather balls were 
smooth and they were erratic in their flight. 
After they had been played with a little and had 
been hacked about and marked it was found that 
they held to the line of flight better. After this 
they were marked by hammering and this was a 
great improvement. 

When the gutta percha ball came in it also was 
marked. Probably the best and simplest mark- 
ing ever used was the sunken line, if I may so 
describe it. This consisted of small grooved lines 
running in circles round the ball. There were 
two poles at right angles to each other, thus the 
lines of. the circles, which of course varied in size 
as they were regulated from the pole to the equa- 
tor, cut each other as they crossed. This divided 
the ball roughly speaking into small squares 
each of which was surrounded by grooves or 
sunken lines. This ball both carried and rolled 
perfectly. I never heard a complaint about it, 
and the marking held its own for a long time. Of 
course there were many variations but there was 
nothing that proved superior to this marking in 
any respect whatever. 

Then came the rubber-core and with it a host of 
new markings, most of them grotesque and hap- 
hazard and introduced absolutely without thought , 
indeed, in the majority of cases, by people who 



THE NEW GOLF 235 

were incapable of the kind of thought necessary 
to deal with a subject such as this. 

We had arrived at this condition of affairs when 
I published my first article on the subject. I told 
the editor of The Evening Standard that there 
would be an immense outcry from the trade. 
There was. He sent an assistant to interview 
them about my ideas. They were quite satisfied 
that I was a fit subject for 'inquiry" as to my 
mental condition. The idea was preposterous. I 
was a mere theorist. In fact it was the usual 
thing. They were practically unanimous in their 
opinion that my opinion didn't amount to any- 
thing anyway. 

This interview was duly published and my 
friends all sympathized with me until I got tired 
of telling them that I had caused it to be done, as 
I wanted to get the trade opinion on record, where 
they could not go back on it. Also I explained to 
them that the trade, from a trade point of view, 
was quite right to say that I was foolish. They 
had millions of foolish balls to sell and my ideas 
would not assist in selling them. 

The controversy became furious. About this 
time Professor Sir J. J. Thomson delivered his 
famous lecture on The Dynamics of the Golf Ball 
before the Royal Institute of Great Britain. I 
thought that possibly he might be able to shed 



236 THE NEW GOLF 

some light on the disputed points so I asked him 
if he could explain why a smooth golf ball will not 
fly truly, while a properly marked, or indeed an 
over-marked, ball will respond to the influence of 
the driving force consistently until the marking 
gets knocked off it. 

Professor Thomson was constrained to admit 
that he did not know the reason, and in his lecture 
he did not make any attempt whatever to explain 
this phenomenon. I have never seen it explained, 
and I am not positive that I can explain it, but I 
intend to try and to put it up to some one else to 
show that I am wrong and to produce the real ex- 
planation, or one that is better than mine. I need 
not be ashamed if I fail, for in my lack of know- 
ledge — if so it be — I shall have much good com- 
pany. 

We all know that nothing flies well without a 
tail. Rob a bird of its tail and it is nearly as bad 
as a ship without its rudder. Try to shoot an 
arrow without a tail and certain it is that it will 
fall to earth you know not even whereabouts, 
until it has done it. Can you imagine a kite flying 
well without a tail? Where would an aeroplane 
be without a tail ; and so I might go on for quite a 
while, but let me come to something more nearly 
resembling our golf ball. 

The old round bullet was not remarkable for 



THE NEW GOLF 237 

the length of its carry nor for its direction until 
we gave it a tail, by providing it with extra length 
and putting a hole in one end wherein we inserted 
a conical wedge of wood that on the explosion 
pressed the butt end of the bullet open until it en- 
gaged the grooving of the rifle, thus giving the 
bullet a spin, and providing it with what in effect 
was a small flange at its tail, for the bullet did not 
then take the grooving on its solid part if I am 
correctly informed. 

That, however, and its modern development do 
not concern us. We know that the modern bullet 
flies better than the round bullet did and we know 
that it is longer and that it carries spin. We know 
that it holds to its course better. It may be wrong 
to say that it has a tail. It would seem at first 
that it is, but in effect it is almost as much entitled 
to a ''head" and a ''tail" as an arrow. 

Now, we must come back to the golf ball. It 
has always seemed to me that the main reason 
why the smooth golf ball will not fly straight is 
not because it has no tail, but because it cannot 
keep its tail on. That requires some explana- 
tion. 

It will readily be admitted that the air in front 
of a swiftly driven golf ball must be somewhat 
compressed. It also seems reasonable to assume 
that there is, immediately behind the ball, some- 



238 THE NEW GOLF 

thing resembling a vacuum in that the air must be 
thinned to compensate for what is going on in 
front of the ball. We all know the old saying 
that "Nature abhors a vacuum." Probably this 
is correct. If so, we know that Nature is doing 
her best to fill up the space behind the ball, from 
the condensed air in front, until that which is be- 
hind the ball regains its normal density. 

This operation means a continual flow around 
the ball of air that is denser than the ordinary 
atmosphere. I am speaking in this case of a ball 
without spin. In the ball that is marked by 
excrescences this condensed air is flowing in be- 
tween them and perhaps over them, in the ball that 
is marked by dimples it is flowing in and out of 
them, in the ball that is marked by communicating 
indentations it is flowing through such indenta- 
tions regularly and perhaps over-flowing. 

In each of these cases there is a ''stream" of 
condensed air flowing over the surface of the ball 
on its way back to regain normal density at, say 
an inch or maybe two, behind the ball. Some will 
say of course that the air is constant and that it 
is the ball that is moving. I think that my way 
of putting it makes my idea clearer and we may 
leave it to the scientists to improve on it. 

It thus happens that our rough golf ball is pro- 
vided with a tail of compressed air, or should I 



THE NEW GOLF 239 

say that it flies in a cylinder of compressed air 
which holds it to its flight? 

Now supposing that this explanation is correct 
what explanation have we to offer of the remark- 
ably erratic flight of the smooth golf ball. I have 
had them made to my order with varying degrees 
of fineness in the marking and the manner in which 
the smooth balls ducked and soared and swerved 
was most remarkable. They were as erratic in 
flight as a butterfly. How is this to be accounted 
for? 

The only reason I can advance is that on account 
of the smooth ball having nothing to hold it into 
the condensed air cushion in front of it, as in the 
case of the marked ball, when the pressure in front 
becomes excessive the ball ''slips it" and starts 
off on the line of least resistance to look for an- 
other chance to repeat its performance. Some 
people would argue that this is unlikely, that 
the pressure must be equal all round, in front at 
least, and so forth. That might be technically 
correct were we dealing with a perfect sphere of 
homogeneous quality but we all know, to our cost, 
the rubber-cored golf ball is frequently not a 
perfect sphere, and that its center of gravity is 
very often not in the place where we had hoped 
it was — especially when we are about two feet six 
inches from the hole ! 



240 THE NEW GOLF 

That is the best explanation I can give of a mat- 
ter that has proved a mystery to England's lead- 
ing physicist. If it stimulates some one to produce 
something more illuminating I shall be pleased. 
In literary work, as in golf, I like generally to do 
those things I know how to do, but he is a poor 
sportsman who will not risk a shot when it seems 
to him to be the only one to play, because he does 
not know it perfectly. 

Shortly after the beginning of the great contro- 
versy about the relative merits of marking by in- 
dentation and by excrescence I had a number of 
golf balls with varying degrees of indentation 
made for me. My readers must understand that 
this is an expensive amusement for those who have 
to pay the bills. Each pattern cost for the mold 
alone over fifty dollars, not to mention time and 
other incidentals. 

I had asserted that the modern bramble or 
pimple marking was unscientific and excessive. I 
thought that it was ' ' up to me ' ' to prove it. I had 
a golf ball with an extremely fine marking made. 
I had decided that I should start at the other ex- 
treme and find the mean. When this ball was 
painted the paint filled up the interstices. I shall 
never forget the trial of that ball. The erratic 
nature of its flight was the most remarkable thing 
of its kind that I had ever seen. George Duncan 



THE NEW GOLF 241 

and I tried it out. It zigzagged and soared and 
ducked in a manner that was to me at that time 
truly incomprehensible. It set me seeking for 
the explanation which perhaps I have not got yet. 

I knew of course that all I had to do was to in- 
crease the size of the indentations. I saved a lot 
of time by producing the ''Vaile" ball. This was 
the first rubber-cored ball to be marked by indenta- 
tions. It was the old two-pole cross-circle mark- 
ing. The ball, as indeed I knew it must, both flew 
and ran perfectly. You will ask me of course 
why I am not running it commercially if it was a 
success. It is a perfectly fair question and the 
answer will amuse you, for it is not one that you, 
or I, would expect in England. Golfers said that 
the marking was too much like that of the old gut- 
tie! 

It certainly was not too much like it. It was 
the same marking. There never was a better 
marking for a golf ball and I doubt if there ever 
will be. I was the first to put it on the rubber- 
cored ball, where it, and nothing else, should be 
to-day. Any slight deviation of flight can be im- 
mediately corrected by altering the depth and 
width of the lines by the minutest fraction of an 
inch. 

I need not now emphasize the change in thought 
that has taken place with regard to the marking 



242 THE NEW GOLF 

of tlie golf ball. It is no longer King Pimple, and 
the good London tradesmen who said rude things 
about me are selling and praising millions of 
dimple balls which would be much better fliers, if 
they only knew it, if the dimples had communica- 
tion trenches. 

What would a champion billiard player think 
of one who suggested to him that it would improve 
the run of the balls if one were to put little lumps 
all over them. Well, be it remembered, that the 
effect is the same on a billiard table and a putting 
green. The degree is what varies. 

Following this illustration it is easy to see that 
if one cuts grooves into a billiard ball it would 
affect the truth of its running much less than the 
same sized excrescences would, or to confine the 
example to pimples and dimples, a golf ball could 
rest on one dimple, but it requires three or four 
pimples to hold it steady. This is about the rela- 
tive reliability or stability in the final test of roll- 
ing on a perfect plane. 

It is in short puts on fiery greens that the vice 
of the bramble marking shows itself. If in addi- 
tion to this, the golfer is ill-advised enough to use 
a shallow-faced putter, he will indeed require our 
sympathy. 

This question of bramble marking is of more 
importance as one nears the hole. Very many 



THE NEW GOLF 243 

people cannot believe how little it takes to put a 
two foot put off the line. Suppose in such a put 
one hits a pimple fairly on the head and it hap- 
pens to lie across the line to the hole and not in it. 
Will it affect the direction? Undoubtedly. It 
would not matter in an approach put. The 
strength would overcome the crudity of your im- 
plements and would hold the ball up against the 
irregularities of its surface, but it is less so as one 
gets nearer to the hole. 

I must give here an instance from another game 
that seems to me quite apposite. A tennis racket 
was introduced some years ago for which the in- 
ventor claimed superior power to obtain cut be- 
cause every intersection of the strings was knot- 
ted. One could indeed get a great degree of 
spin with this racket, but it was found that in the 
delicate volleys at the net the knots interfered 
badly with the accuracy of the stroke, so much in- 
deed, as to render the racket quite useless for 
practical tennis. The same thing exists, near the 
hole particularly, with the ball that is marked 
by pimples, brambles or any other excres- 
cences. 

Any chapter on the golf ball would be incom- 
plete without some account of the remarkable 
series of experiments conducted by Sir Kalph 
Payne-Gallwey, the famous wild-fowler and author 



244 THE NEW GOLF 

of The Projectile Throwing Engines of the An- 
cients. 

During the early stages of the controversy Sir 
Ealph wrote to me and very kindly volunteered to 
conduct a series of tests I had suggested if I would 
send him the golf balls, which I very gladly did. 

Sir Ealph has some wonderful catapults con- 
structed on the same lines as the mischievous 
machines that formed the heavy artillery of the 
Romans. With one of these he could hurl a twelve 
pound stone a quarter of a mile. As a neighbor 
his good-will should, I think, be worth cultivating. 

He used a smaller machine for the experiments 
he made for me. His results were extremely in- 
teresting and they were embodied in two articles 
which occupied three columns of The Times. I 
shall give as fully as I can those points of interest 
to the golfer and the golf ball manufacturer, in 
the hope that the latter may realize quickly 
the soundness of my contention and banish the 
pimple or bramble marking. 

One important thing that Sir Ealph did was to 
show that the center of gravity is wrong in a great 
majority of balls. I suspect that it must be very 
hard to get a rubber-core with its ' 'floating center" 
right in this particular. 

Many golfers would think that this is a matter 
of practically no importance. Let them proceed 




> o 



pq 



THE NEW GOLF 245 

to undeceive themselves by making a small hole 
in the case of a ball, inserting a buck shot, fixing 
it there with soap or wax, and trying to put with 
it. Then they will have a better understanding 
of what center of gravity means. 

I may say that I am inclined to think that the 
peculiar double swerve that one so often sees at 
golf is the result of defective center of gravity. 
I have often seen well-hit drives by famous golfers 
swerve to the right, swing back again to the line 
and go on to the hole without deviation from the 
line. 

I am familiar with the rare phenomenon of dou- 
ble swerve through an adventitious change of the 
axis of rotation during flight. This practically 
never occurs in golf and when one sees it in any 
other game there is always a considerable amount 
of irregularity about it, as, indeed one might ex- 
pect from the nature of its production; but this 
sinuous double swerve. of golf is so regular and 
so consistent in its manifestation, when it does 
occur, that I have been forced to the conclusion 
that it is a matter of defective center of gravity. 

A manufacturer will not supply a customer 
with something he does not demand. The golfer 
is a good natured soul who takes what is given to 
him, for the most that can be got out of him, and 
asks no questions. When he cannot play he says 



246 THE NEW GOLF 

nasty things about himself, which generally is 
right and also a proper frame of mind; but, oh, 
happy thought, if he only knew it, the golf ball is 
not doing its fair share as often as it ought to. 
The shape, resiliency, and center of gravity of the 
golf ball are matters of the utmost importance to 
the golfer, yet he takes all these for granted with 
a confidence that is quite touching. One may take 
fifty golf balls and test them for shape, resiliency, 
center of gravity and weight, and the odds are 
even that twenty-five of them are different from 
the other twenty-five. 

It is easy to test the rubber-cored balls as re- 
gards their center of gravity. Sir Ralph did this 
by placing the ball he desired to test in a basin of 
water until it came to rest, when he marked the 
center of the spot that was protruding with a pen- 
cil. He found that this spot always came back to 
the same place, no matter how the ball was 
dropped into the water or rolled about. This 
showed conclusively that the center of gravity was 
wrong. 

Sir Ralph found that the guttie ball, as was to 
be expected, was much truer as regards center of 
gravity than the rubber-cored balls. He tried 
these and the miniature ball that would not float 
in water, in a solution of salt and water. 

His experiments were really most exhaustive. 



THE NEW GOLF 247 

He found that there was a considerable variation 
in the degree of error. In some cases, especially 
with the smaller balls, the marked spot came up 
in two seconds, while some of the others took from 
four to six seconds. He estimated the compara- 
tive error in these balls by putting the marked 
spot downwards in the water and then taking the 
time it took the ball to return to its original posi- 
tion with the spot in the center of the exposed 
portion. 

The catapult that Sir Ealph used for his ex- 
periment with regard to the flight of the ball was 
a small model of the formidable machine I have 
already referred to. It will pitch a golf ball from 
180 to 200 yards away according to the amount of 
tension employed and the elevation given. 

The power of the engine comes from twisted 
cord and the arm of the machine is two feet eight 
inches long. There is a cup at its upper end 
which holds the ball. Sir Ralph can throw the 
balls any intermediate distance up to 200 yards 
and at any elevation he wants. He conducted ex- 
periments with balls thrown by this catapult and 
also with balls hit away by it, as he says, in a man- 
ner similar to a golf club. He found that in each 
case he got unvarying accuracy. There was no 
slice, pull or cut, as indeed was natural. 

Sir Ralph found that the accuracy of flight of 



248 THE NEW GOLF 

a good ball was very remarkable. He pitched 
one ball twenty times so that it landed each time 
within a few feet of a peg put in at 180 yards from 
the machine. 

Sir Ralph found, as I had confidently asserted 
would be the case, that against the wind the balls 
with the roughest markings always carried the 
shortest distance and that they tended to soar a 
good deal in their flight. This generally came in 
after they had gone about two-thirds of the carry. 
It is apparent from this I think, that in all cases 
of drives with backspin the excessive markings 
would be detrimental so far as regards distance. 

Sir Ralph found that in this matter of soaring 
there was a distinct difference between the very 
rough balls and those that were a little less so. 
He proved beyond the least shadow of doubt that 
on account of reduced friction the less roughly 
marked balls carried farther than those which 
were heavily marked. Naturally the flight of 
these balls being lower they had on this account 
also an advantage. 

These remarkable experiments showed too that 
in a cross wind unless there is spin on a golf ball 
it is not affected nearly so much as most people 
think. It was found that in a fresh side wind 
from the left all the balls except the guttie, at a 
range of 130 yards, landed 8 to 12 yards to the 



THE NEW GOLF 249 

right of the mark, and that the more roughly 
marked balls consistently showed the greatest 
deviation from the line. 

In this experiment Sir Ralph discovered a very 
remarkable fact. It was always the ball with the 
most defective center of gravity that made the 
worst deviation and it always ran at a more acute 
angle off the line of flight after it struck the 
ground. 

We thus see that it was always the most roughly 
marked balls that suffered most from the action 
of the wind. We see that it was one of them, 
which also suffered from a defective center, that 
was carried the extreme of twelve yards off the 
line. We may thus assume that in this distance 
this would probably be the maximum deviation in 
a wind of the nature described by Sir Ralph Payne- 
Grallwey. 

When we consider this result we can see the 
golfer is frequently suffering from a very severe 
handicap that he does not even suspect, when he 
uses a ball that allows the wind to get such a grip 
of it as the bramble marked ball does, and which 
moreover has superimposed upon this handicap 
a defective center, which carries it further off the 
line, and the added vice, after landing, of running 
away at a sharp angle to the line of its drift. 
What a virgin field is here for him who would 



250 THE NEW GOLF 

clearly explain in a scientific and convincing man- 
ner that it was not he that sliced the ball, but — 
and this is where it comes in. 

I sent Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey some samples 
of the almost smooth ball that I have referred to 
on account of its extraordinary flight. I called 
this ball ''The Ruff" to distinguish it from others. 

Sir Ralph says of it: ''This ball was quite 
smooth, as smooth indeed as a billiard ball. I 
tried this smooth ball from the engine and it 
'ducked' every time in an extraordinary manner, 
its length of carry being seldom more than eighty 
yards." 

This is the ball the interstices of which had been 
nearly filled up with paint. It was nearly as 
smooth as a billiard ball, much more nearly indeed 
than had been intended. 

Sir Ralph thought that for some unexplained 
reason the form of this ball might not be suitable 
for discharge by a projectile engine, so he carried 
his experiments further still. Let me quote him. 

He says: "... and as I could not drive 
it further than about eighty yards with a golf 
club, I engaged the well-known professional Ed- 
ward Ray, to play a round of the green with this 
. ball at Ganton. As Ray is an exceptionally long 
and accurate player with driver and cleek I felt 
the ball would have a fair chance of going, if it 



THE NEW GOLF 251 

could go. From the first tee the ball did not carry 
a hundred yards, though, to all appearances, 
struck clean and hard. I thought that for once in 
a while Eay had missed his drive, but as the same 
thing occurred from every tee and through the 
green for the next six holes, there was no dispu- 
ting that a smooth ball was quite useless for golf. 
I then proceeded to nick the ball slightly with the 
point of a knife, spacing the small raised nicks 
about one third of an inch apart, the ball being 
still a very smooth one in comparison to any of 
the usual kinds. After this slight alteration the 
ball flew splendidly, whether off wood or iron 
clubs, neither too high nor too low, but quite 
straight, and with the very slight rise towards the 
end of its carry that is the essence of perfect 
flight in a golf ball, some of the carries when 
measured from the tee being well over two hun- 
dred yards." 

This surely is a sufficient vindication of the 
soundness of my claim for less marking. 

Sir Ealph, moreover, says that on his return 
home he shot this ball from his small catapult and 
that it then several times out-distanced the best 
record made by any of the other balls he had 
tested. 

He was not, however, satisfied to leave it at that, 
but proceeded to chip up many more nicks on the 



252 THE NEW GOLF 

same ball. He found that this reduced the flight 
of the ball by several yards and also caused it to 
soar too much against a head-wind as is the case 
with the ordinary rough-marked golf ball. 

It will thus be seen that Sir Ralph was very 
thorough in his tests. In summing up his con- 
clusions he says: ''From such practical tests it is 
evident that the surface of the golf ball is far too 
rough, and that it would fly with more accuracy 
and farther, especially with a head or a side wind, 
had it much less numerous and prominent mark- 
ings on its cover. ' ' 

This is exactly what I contended in my original 
article. It is what I still say. It is what the 
makers of golf balls must realize if they want to 
improve the flight and run of the ball. Their 
work is too coarse. They will not see that. Golf 
is a game of infinite delicacy. It cannot be played 
coarsely. I do not believe that a really coarse 
man could play it very well. Near the hole it is a 
particularly delicate matter. We all know that 
except the ball makers. 

Sir Ralph has some most interesting things to 
tell us about the experiments he made in driving 
with his machine. 

He says : ' ' This striking arm hit the ball away 
just as it is hit by a golf club. The ball I sus- 
pended by gossamer silk from the projecting 



THE NEW GOLF 253 

beam of a little gallows fixed over the engine, and 
so positioned that the enlarged upper end of the 
arm struck the ball fair and true and with its full 
force and at the same angle every time." 

I was not present at these experiments. Sir 
Ralph was, however, good enough to send me a 
copy of his book The Projectile Throwing Engines 
of the Ancients. I find it hard to follow him 
when he says, ' ^ This striking arm hit the ball away 
just as it is hit by a golf club," for the catapult 
was hitting the ball from below it while the golf 
club hits it from above. The arcs are entirely 
dissimilar. We know, however, that the balls 
were all struck in a similar manner and, where 
comparisons as to carry were to be made, with 
similar force. 

Continuing his remarks about driving, he says : 
''Another curious thing; the ball with the most 
untrue center of gravity usually made one, and 
occasionally even two, swerves in the air when hit 
against the wind, though this eccentricity in its 
line of flight was less noticeable when it was 
thrown from the engine." 

I had forgotten that Sir Ralph's experiments 
had in some degree confirmed my idea about the 
double swerve of the golf ball being due to de- 
fective center of gravity. Here, however, he sets 
us a new puzzle. It may be that the center being 



254 THE NEW GOLF 

off the line and the main spring of the ball being 
around the center that the coefficient of restitu- 
tion, as I think it is called, is strongest off the 
center and thus gives that side of the ball on which 
the core is situated a tendency to get away from 
the club first, soon to be corrected as the weightier 
side lagged, swung back and round to the other 
side and then repeated the performance for the 
return swerve. That is the only idea I can ad- 
vance for this double swerve. I dealt with the 
subject of double swerve generally many years 
ago in The Field, London. 

Sir Ealph Payne Gallwey was occupied for sev- 
eral days in these experiments. He fired fully 
five hundred shots and then he went inside and 
continued his experiments in order to arrive at a 
just comparison between the merits of these balls 
on the putting green. 

It is not necessary just because this is a table 
d'hote dinner to take every course. Those who 
are not interested in this matter need not follow 
me here, but Sir Ralph's experiments as regards 
the run of the ball are so remarkable and so im- 
portant that I have decided to put them on record 
in America so that they may do their share in 
affecting the new thought in golf and things ap- 
pertaining to golf. 

He says: ''I obtained a piece of lead three- 



THE NEW GOLF 255 

quarters of an inch thick, two inches wide, and 
three feet long, in which I cut a straight and 
smooth groove one inch wide. One end of this 
piece of lead I rested on the cushion at the baulk 
end of a billiard table, and directed its other end 
towards the spot on which the red ball is placed 
in the game of billiards. ' ' Sir Ralph speaks here, 
of course, of English billiards. This spot is in 
the middle of the table about nine inches from the 
top cushion. The length of the table is twelve 
feet and its breadth six feet. "The forward end 
of the grooved lead I tapered off so that a ball ran 
evenly and smoothly from the groove onto the 
table without any drop or deviation as it left the 
piece of lead, which, from its weight, when once 
set, could not change its position. I now placed 
a thimble on the spot at the far end of the table 
and rolled an accurately turned wooden ball the 
same size as a golf ball down the sloping groove. 
After a little adjustment of the lead piece its line 
of fire was correct, and I was able to knock the 
thimble off the spot fifty times in succession. The 
ball traveled with sufficient speed just to reach 
the cushion beyond the thimble when the latter 
was moved aside, and the shot at the thimble nicely 
represented a slow put of eight feet in length. ' ' 

Sir Ralph found on testing the different golf 
balls that he got widely different results. He took 



256 THE NEW GOLF 

each ball and tried it twenty times at the thimble 
with the result that they seldom hit it more than 
three or four times in a series. Some of them 
rolled off as much as two feet to the right or left 
while those which had been proved guilty of a de- 
fective center of gravity occasionally rolled away 
into the corner pocket, a little matter of three feet 
off the line in eight feet. It sounds almost in- 
credible but it is perfectly true. I had tried the 
same thing in a slightly different way myself. 
This is what the unfortunate golfer often has 
"going against him" on the green. 

Sir Ealph emphasizes a point that I often make 
namely, that the inaccuracy of the bramble ball is 
overlooked because in approach puts the force of 
the blow holds it up against its own tendency to 
wabble. He says: "Any of the balls if played 
fairly hard from a cue could be made to strike the 
thimble every time, but then such a hard-hit ball 
would go far beyond the hole in golf, and probably 
overrun the putting green. The smooth billiard 
tablecloth may be taken to represent the hard, 
bare and fast putting green of a dry summer. ' ' 

Sir Ralph was most thorough in his experi- 
ments. He covered the table with a strip of rougn 
green baize and tried the balls again. He then 
found that the balls ran with much greater accu- 
racy, except those that were defective as to center 




© Brown Bros., N. Y. 

FRANCIS OUIMET 
Finish of Drive 



THE NEW GOLF 257 

of gravity, and that they now hit the thimble eight 
or ten times in a series of twenty tries. 

I think we may take it for granted that this se- 
ries of experiments proved, that especially on a 
hard fast green, and particularly for puts that 
have not much force behind them the bramble or 
pimple marking, or indeed any marking by ex- 
crescence is most treacherous. 

Sir Ealph's advice to the golfer about a golf 
ball is : ' ' Select a ball with as smooth a cover as 
you can find, for though all golf balls require to 
be roughened in order to steady their flight, those 
most deeply scored travel the shortest distance, 
and are most affected by a head or side wind. ' ' 

If the great controversy about the marking of 
the golf ball had had no other effect than this truly 
remarkable series of experiments by a man who 
is famous as a shot and an author, and who is 
moreover a practical golfer, it would still have 
served golf. 



CHAPTER XVni 

THE FLIGHT OF THE GOLF BALL 

The flight of the golf ball has occupied the atten- 
tion of some very eminent men. Golf was not so 
popular in Newton's time as it is now. If it had 
been we should no doubt have had the benefit of 
his knowledge in connection with various matters 
appertaining thereto. 

Newton is more celebrated for what he is sup- 
posed to have discovered through the flight of the 
apple. He was not, however, above turning his 
mind to matters of less moment than the law of 
gravitation; and over two hundred years ago, 
in most learned and weighty language, he laid 
down the principles governing the swerve of a 
tennis ball. 

Incidentally I may remark that when I applied 
the same principles to cricket and explained the 
swerve of the ball in England to English cricketers 
in my book Siverve, or the Flight of the Ball, a 
famous English cricketer, famous, I may say, 
more for his physical than his intellectual ''wal- 
lop," declared that what I said was not to be taken 

258 



THE NEW GOLF 259 

seriously. Poor Newton! I did not give him 
away, and now in The Times Library, London, 
that book of mine may be found catalogued as a 
work on applied mathematics, and I do not believe 
that I could do a simple equation without assist- 
ance. 

I forget how I got my '^ greatness." I wasn't 
born with it, and it certainly was not thrust upon 
me. I am certain Newton helped me ; but I have 
never confessed it until this time, and I wouldn't 
do it now in England. If this book gets into the 
hands of the English press I am undone, and New- 
ton will come into his own ! 

"We have, however, in the records of golf writ- 
ing some remarkable contributions by learned men. 

One of the first was by Professor Tait, father 
of the famous Freddie Tait, who was afterwards 
killed in the Boer War, a fine golfer, and by all 
accounts a fine fellow, as are so many, who belong 
to the grand guild of the club that it makes the 
writing of golf books more a matter of pleasant 
club conversation than severe literary parturition. 

Professor Tait published an article in The Bad- 
minton Magazine of March, 1896, entitled ''Long 
Driving." Professor Tait really was a very 
learned man and he became most interested in 
golf, and indeed was himself by no means a poor 
player. 



26o THE NEW GOLF 

He worked it out by mathematics that it was 
beyond human capacity to drive a golf ball more 
than a certain number of feet and inches, which he 
duly set down, and next day his famous son, some- 
what undutifully, so the story runs, knocked his 
father's calculations sky high by driving a golf 
ball much farther than the mathematical limit. 

Here was a pretty to do. The situation had to 
be faced somehow. Professor Tait again bent his 
mind to the question and came to the conclusion 
that there must be some force in the golf drive 
which he had overlooked. It did not take him 
long to decide that it was backspin. 

He went into the matter fully and wrote his 
article for The Badminton Magazine and it has 
been quoted reverently ever since by any one who 
ever wrote anything about golf except me, and 
the only thing they didn't say to me because I did 
not reverence it was De mortuis nisi nil honum; 
and I fully expected that. 

As a matter of fact Professor Tait's article is 
founded on a fundamental error to which I have 
before referred, namely that the beneficial back- 
spin of golf is obtained from the loft of the club. 
It is an error that is by no means uncommon and 
he has been followed in it of recent years by a 
physicist of even greater renown. Professor Sir 
J. J. Thomson, M.A., L.L.D., D.S.C., F.R.S., 



THE NEW GOLF 261 

M.R.I., O.M. ; Cavendish Professor of Experi- 
mental Physics, Cambridge ; Professor of Physics, 
Royal Institution, London; Professor of Natural 
Philosophy, Royal Institution, and winner of the 
Nobel Prize for physics, 1906. 

The title of his paper was The Di/namics of a 
Golf Ball, and it was read before The Royal In- 
stitution of Great Britain. We may see that 
neither the institution under whose auspices the 
lecture was delivered nor the lecturer was incon- 
siderable. In fact so much importance was at- 
tached to it that I am wondering if by any chance 
I can get recommended for the next Nobel Prize 
for physics for showing clearly, as indeed I have 
already done, that Professor Tait and more re- 
cently Professor Thomson, who indeed followed 
Professor Tait's lead very closely, were quite 
wrong in their deductions. 

Professor Tait said: "The most cursory obser- 
vation shows that a ball is hardly ever sent on its 
course without some spin, so that we may take 
the fact for granted, even if we cannot fully ex- 
plain the mode of its production. And the main 
object of this article is to show that long carry 
essentially involves underspin." 

There are two important mistakes here. It 
wants much more than ''The most cursory obser- 
vation" to show that '*a ball is hardly ever sent 



262 THE NEW GOLF 

on its course without some spin." Nobody has 
ever yet established that fact, and it is undoubted 
that the vast majority of golf balls that are driven 
by good players have no spin — particularly back- 
spin — that appreciably affects their flight, that 
they are to all intents and purposes cleanly hit 
balls, with generally an uppish tendency in the 
stroke which kills all backspin. 

Professor Tait continues: ''To find that his 
magnificent carry was due to what is virtually a 
toeing operation — ^performed no doubt in a verti- 
cal and not in a horizontal plane, is too much for 
the self-exalting golfer ! ' ' 

And so indeed it should be, for nothing is fur- 
ther from the truth. 

Professor Tait, however, continues: "The fact 
however, is indisputable. When we fasten one 
end of a long untwisted tape to the ball and the 
other to the ground and induce a good player to 
drive the ball (perpendicularly to the tape) into a 
stiff clay face a yard or two off, we find that the 
tape is always twisted in such a way as to show 
underspin; no doubt to different amounts by 
different players, but proving that the ball makes 
usually from about one to three turns in six feet, 
say from forty to a hundred and twenty turns per 
second, this is clearly a circumstance not to be 
overlooked. ' ' 



THE NEW GOLF 263 

This is one of the most remarkable instances in 
the history of science of the investigator finding 
the thing he was looking for instead of starting 
out to ascertain the truth. In fact, he went so 
far as to make his friends produce the results he 
wanted, but of course innocently, and equally in- 
nocently Professor Sir J. J. Thomson followed 
him and fell into the trap. 

It is in a footnote to his lecture that Professor 
Tait gives the whole thing away. He says calmly 
and unsuspectingly: "In my laboratory experi- 
ments, players could not be expected to do full 
justice to their powers. They had to strike as 
nearly as possible in the center, a ten inch disc of 
clay, the ball being teed about six feet in front of 
it. Besides this preoccupation, there was always 
more or less concern about the possible conse- 
quence of rebound, should the small target be alto- 
gether missed." 

Aiming for the center of a ten inch disc of clay 
six feet away from the tee would give us a ball 
five inches from the earth six feet from the tee ! 

What kind of a stroke would produce such a 
shot? Obviously only the downward blow and 
the low follow-through that produce backspin. 
We can see clearly that Professor Tait arbitrarily 
settled the trajectory of the ball. He made the 
golfer play the ball he was looking for. 



264 THE NEW GOLF 

Instead of a ten inch disc of clay lie should have 
had a clay bank or have had half the side of his 
wall covered with clay and have allowed the golf- 
ers to play their own natural strokes. Then he 
would have found something entirely different. 
Where he made his error was in compelling his 
assistants to aim at a target so low as five inches 
at six feet from the tee. He left them no chance 
to do anything but play the low drive. 

Assuming that the tee was half an inch high 
and allowing that the ball hit the very center of the 
target it would not have risen more than four 
inches in six feet. I think that we should expect 
to find some backspin in such a drive ! 

Professor Thomson started his lecture by say- 
ing: ''This problem is in any case a very inter- 
esting one, which would be even more interesting 
if we could accept the explanations of the behavior 
of the ball given by some contributors to the very 
voluminous literature which has collected around 
the game. If this were correct, I should have to 
bring before you this evening a new dynamics and 
announce that matter when made up into golf 
balls obeys laws of an entirely different character 
from those governing its action when in any other 
condition. ' ' 

Notwithstanding this somewhat pompous start 
Professor Thomson proceeded to explain most of 



THE NEW GOLF 265 

the ** problem" on exactly the lines that Newton 
and I — or should I say I and Newton — had done 
some few years ago — to be more precise, Newton 
about 250 years and I, on the result of his know- 
ledge, about seven years ago. 

Whenever Professor Thomson was correct he 
explained everything exactly as I have laid it 
down in that work on "applied mathematics," 
Swerve, or the Flight of the Ball; and when he 
was not in accord with that he was wrong, and 
hopelessly wrong, too, both theoretically and 
practically. 

If this were a matter of splitting atoms, sub- 
dividing elektrons, or discovering new gases I 
should not dare to raise my voice against Pro- 
fessor Thomson ; but I happen to know something 
about this subject. I believe the Arab proverb 
says, ''He is a wise man who knows that he knows. 
Follow him." The proverb does not give any 
short method of finding out whether or not ''he" 
knows, so in this case if my readers want to be 
"in at the death," they must follow me and 
chance it. 

Professor Thomson says: "... a golf ball, 
when it leaves the club, is only in rare cases 
devoid of spin, and it is spin which gives the in- 
terest, variety, and vivacity to the flight of the 
ball ; it is spin which accounts for the behavior of 



266 THE NEW GOLF 

a sliced or pulled ball ; it is spin which makes the 
ball soar or 'douk,' or execute those wild flour- 
ishes which give the impression that the ball is 
endowed with an artistic temperament and per- 
forms these eccentricities, as an acrobat might 
throw in an extra somersault or two for the fun of 
the thing. This view, however, gives an entirely 
wrong impression of the temperament of a golf 
ball, which is, in reality, the most prosaic of 
things, knowing while in the air only one rule of 
conduct which it obeys with an intelligent con- 
scientiousness, that of always following its nose. 
This rule is the only key to the behavior of all balls 
when in the air ; whether they are golf balls, base- 
balls, cricket balls or tennis' balls. ' ' 

Any ordinary unscientific person may well be 
pardoned for asking what is a ball's nose. If it 
were a bramble marked ball one might pick out 
an extra large excrescence and so name it but 
Professor Thomson does not mean anything so 
scientific as this. His idea of what constitutes the 
ball's *'nose" is shown by the following quotation: 
"Let us, before entering into the reasons for this 
rule, trace out some of its consequences. By the 
nose of the ball we mean the point on the ball 
furthest in front." 

Professor Thomson does not even state here 
whether he means farthest in front in the line of 



THE NEW GOLF 267 

flight or in the line to the hole. It is obvious that 
in the cases of a straight hit to the hole and a 
pulled drive the spot on each ball representing 
the nose would be in a different place. 

As a matter of fact, however, Professor Thom- 
son means, although he does not say so, ' ' the point 
on the ball furthest in front" in the line of its 
flight. 

This puts his explanation of swerve out of court 
at once. I know an English amateur who can pull 
a ball so that it will sail away out over the rough 
for thirty or forty yards and then swing in again 
to the middle of the course. Let us apply Pro- 
fessor Thomson's rule to this ball. If it always 
* 'followed its nose" it would never come back on 
to the fairway. It comes back because its nose is 
pushed round. 

The trouble is that Professor Thomson wants 
to have the ''nose" of the ball both a fixed and a 
moving point; but he cannot have it both ways. 
If the "nose" is a fixed point in front of the ball 
without spin the ball will always, with but slight 
variation, go straight after that "nose" without 
any swerve whatever. If the nose is meant to 
exist in a spinning ball it is obvious that there is 
not one but millions of noses. It is a new nose 
every time the revolving ball makes a movement 
of the decillionth of an inch — more or less. 



268 THE NEW GOLF 

The truth is that Professor Thomson's explana- 
tion tends at the outset to confuse. The swerve 
of the ball has nothing whatever to do with the 
turning of the ''nose," or the millions of noses in 
any pai'ticular direction apart from the extra local 
friction set up, as already explained, on one part 
of the ball. 

Professor Thomson makes it very clear that he 
is not well acquainted with the various methods 
of applying spin to balls in sport. He says: **A 
lawn tennis player avails himself of the effect of 
spin when he puts 'top-spin' on his drives, i.e. hits 
the ball on the top, so as to make it spin about a 
horizontal axis, the nose of the ball traveling 
downwards . . . ; this makes the ball fall more 
quickly than it otherwise would, and thus tends 
to prevent it going out of court. ' ' 

I have played tennis — ^we do not now call it lawn 
tennis — for more than twenty years. I am the 
author of four books on the game, one of which is 
translated into French and German, published also 
in America, and is recognized both in England and 
America as the standard work on the game, and I 
can assure Professor Thomson that no tennis 
player ever dreams of trying to get top-spin on 
his ball by hitting it on top. The only result would 
be to "founder" the ball, to drive it onto the 




HAERY VARDON" 
Finish of Drive 



THE NEW GOLF 269 

ground before it could even touch the net, let 
alone get over it and into the opposite court. 

Sometimes when the bound is very high and 
very near the net one may hit the ball a little 
above the middle of its height; to use Professor 
Thomson's term, a little above its *'nose" as seen 
from the opposing player's court, but even in such 
rare cases as these there is no attempt to hit the 
ball on ''top." This is theory of the most un- 
sound nature. Top-spin in tennis is obtained by 
hitting the ball generally speaking with a racket 
whose face is practically vertical and ascending in 
an oblique line across the intended line of flight 
of the ball, to put it very simply one ''brushes" 
the racket up behind and against the ball thus 
gripping it and making it spring away with a lot 
of forward roll that is commonly called top or top- 
spin. 

Professor Thomson indeed shows by diagram 
how this top-spin affects the ball, but even here 
he is in error. He shows the ball beginning to dip 
directly it is hit. It really goes quite a long way 
ill nearly every case before the spin gets to work. 
Probably, almost certainly, on account of the great 
adhesion between the ball and the tennis racket, 
the ball rises after impact. It is in fact a cer- 
tainty that most balls hit with top-spin do so rise 



270 THE NEW GOLF 

for a majority of them are hit below the height of 
the net. 

Professor Tait makes this error in his article 
Long Driving, and it is quite clear to me that Pro- 
fessor Thomson is following him very closely in 
his statenients. 

Here is a statement by Professor Thomson 
about the soundness of which many of my readers 
will be better able to judge than I am : * ' Excellent 
examples of the effect of spin on the flight of a ball 
in the air are afforded in the game of base-ball. 
An expert pitcher, by putting on the proper spin, 
can make the ball curve either to the right or the 
left, upwards or downwards; for the sideway 
curves the spin must be about a vertical axis ; for 
the upward or downward ones, about a horizontal 
axis. ' ' 

I speak here, subject to correction, but I should 
imagine that all good pitchers tilt the axis of spin 
out of the vertical and so get gravitation in as an 
ally instead of fighting it by keeping the plane of 
spin horizontal. We get much greater swerve in 
the American service at tennis, where the axis of 
spin is tilted over, than we do in services where 
we keep the axis of spin nearly vertical. 

Professor Thomson says: "If a ball were spin- 
ning about an axis along the line of flight, the axis 
of spin would pass through the nose of the ball, 



THE NEW GOLF 271 

and the spin would not affect the motion of the 
nose ; the ball, following its nose, would thus move 
on without deviation." 

The spin which Professor Thomson is here de- 
scribing is that which a rifle bullet has during its 
flight for it is obvious that a rifle bullet is spinning 
** about an axis along the line of flight" and that 
the axis of spin does pass through the nose of the 
bullet. We know, however, that in the case of the 
rifle bullet there is a considerable amount of de- 
viation, which is called ''drift," and not swerve. 
This has never been very clearly explained 
although some most learned treatises have been 
written about it. 

It is, of course, an impossibility to communi- 
cate this spin to a golf ball by means of a golf 
club, but reasoning from the analogy of the rifle 
bullet I cannot see that Professor Thomson is safe 
in so dogmatically asserting that there would be 
no deviation. In fact, I am inclined to think that 
if tempted I might show that a golf ball with a 
similar spin to the rifle bullet would deviate from 
its course. 

I have just said that it is impossible to produce 
this spin with a golf club. The question naturally 
arises how could one make the test. I believe it 
could be done with a straight hit ball provided the 
ball was grooved in curves of such a nature that 



272 THE NEW GOLF 

the wind would be almost sure to engage them and 
so turn the ball until it acquired a certain amount 
of spin. 

I saw a sample of such a ball some time ago. It 
had four to six poles and the lines were all in 
curves flowing one way. The idea was ingenious 
but the resulting patterns would not be popular 
with golfers; and while the ball might hold its 
flight well, in plain hit balls it would not, I think, 
have any advantage in the important class of balls 
hit with backspin, for it would naturally have a 
constant tendency to fight across the plane of spin 
of the backspin. 

Professor Thomson performed some most elab- 
orate experiments to prove the truth of those 
things which Newton explained about two hundred 
and fifty years ago and which were recognized as 
fundamental truths until I was rash enough to 
use them in London, when they were called my 
"theories." They never really understood how 
complimentary they were. 

It is strange that although Newton thoroughly 
understood the theory of swerve he was in the 
same error as that of Professors Tait and Thom- 
son, namely that it was the "oblique racket," in 
other words the "loft" that was producing the 
spin. He said, writing to Oldenburg in 1671, 
about the Dispersion of Light, "I remembered 



THE NEW GOLF 273 

that I had often seen a tennis ball struck with an 
oblique racket describe such a curved line." 

It is not so much striking anything with an 
''oblique" instrument that produces spin, al- 
though in certain cases that will, of course, assist, 
as it is the striking of the oblique blow. Even 
with such a heavily lofted club as the niblick one 
will never get much backspin unless one plays the 
stroke designed to produce it. 

It is when we get to slicing and pulling, how- 
ever, that Professor Thomson gets quite out of his 
depth. At page 12 of his remarkable paper he 
says: ''So far I have been considering under- 
spin. Let us now illustrate slicing and pulling; 
in these cases the ball is spinning about a vertical 
axis. ' ' 

This statement is very definite and quite wrong. 
1 have already dealt very fully with the flight and 
run of the slice and the pull in the chapters de- 
voted to those strokes. I have practically nothing 
to add to these except to say that any one who has 
had even a very brief experience of golf will know 
the different characteristics of the flight and run 
of the pull as set out by me. They will not re- 
quire any argument to convince them that these 
entirely dissimilar effects are not produced by 
the same axis of rotation. 

Professor Thomson performed some most in- 



274 THE NEW GOLF 

genious experiments to demonstrate the correct- 
ness of his theories about the slice and the pull. 
He had an electro-magnet and a red hot piece of 
platinum with a spot of barium oxide on it. * ' The 
platinum is connected with an electric battery 
which causes negatively electrified particles to fly 
off the barium and travel down the glass tube in 
which the platinum strip is contained; nearly all 
the air has been exhausted from this tube. These 
particles are luminous, so that the path they take 
is very easily observed." 

These particles, I may say, take in Professor 
Thomson's mind the place of golf balls, and, by 
means of his electro-magnet he proceeds to show 
us exactly what golf balls when pulled or sliced 
do, but unfortunately for him Professor Thomson 
is wrong in his theory and he is starting out to 
make his ''particles" do what he wants them to 
do, which in this case, is something that neither a 
pulled nor a sliced ball ever does. 

At the beginning of Professor Thomson's paper 
he says; ''I shall not attempt to deal with the 
many important questions which arise when we 
consider the impact of the club, but confine myself 
to the consideration of the flight of the ball after 
it has left the club." 

If Professor Thomson had kept to this line of 
action it would have prevented him from making 



THE NEW GOLF 275 

a very amusing error. He says: *'I have not 
time for more than a few words, as to how the ball 
acquires the spin from the club, but if you grasp 
the principle that the action between the club and 
the ball depends only on their relative motion, 
and that it is the same whether we have the ball 
fixed and move the club against it, or have the club 
fixed and project the ball against it, the main 
features are very easily understood." 

I am afraid that not many of my readers will 
be able to ''grasp the principle" here set out. 
There is herein no reflection on their mental ca- 
pacity, but it seems to me that there is a very 
striking difference in the two propositions so hur- 
riedly set forth by Professor Thomson. If we 
have the club fixed and project the ball against it 
we know that the ball will rebound from the club, 
but if we have the ball fixed and move the club 
against it, nothing that bears any colorable imi- 
tation of golf takes place, unless we move the club 
fast enough when we should simply smash it — 
and at least set up some similarity to the real 
game. 

This really is extreme looseness of expression 
for so weighty a matter ! I know quite well what 
Professor Thomson means to say, but I have not 
to deal with that, and even what he means to say 
is wrong. In the meantime I have only to con- 



276 THE NEW GOLF 

sider ' ' a new dynamics ' ' of how to drive the fixed 
ball! 

I must pass over a good deal that Professor 
Thomson has to say and come to the rock on 
which Professor Tait and, following him, Pro- 
fessor Thomson have split. Professor Thomson 
says: '' Suppose Fig. 27 represents the section of 
the head of a lofted club moving horizontally for- 
ward from right to left, the effect of the impact 
will be the same as if the club were at rest and 
the ball were shot against it horizontally from 
left to right. Evidently, however, in this case the 
ball would tend to roll up the face, and would thus 
get spin about a horizontal axis in the direction 
shown in the figure; this is under-spin and pro- 
duces the upward force which tends to increase 
the carry of the ball." 

This really is an amazing error for a famous 
physicist to make nowadays. Let us consider that 
the club he is speaking of is a driver. I have no 
hesitation in saying that the loft of a driver is 
practically innocent of having anything to do with 
producing backspin. The function of that loft is 
to lift the ball. The beneficial backspin of golf is 
always obtained by a downward glancing blow, 
and moreover by a blow that is moving in an arc 
and not in a straight line, although, of course, 



THE NEW GOLF 277 

when the blow is dehvered the force is applied in 
one direction. 

Professor Thomson errs grievously in showing 
the stroke proceeding in a straight line. This 
rarely if ever happens in golf. The stroke is 
upward or downward, far more often upward than 
downward; for scarcely any one properly trusts 
the loft of the club to do its part, a want of conjfi- 
dence in the club, I may repeat, that is wholly un- 
deserved. This upward hit kills on the instant 
any approach to backspin the club might other- 
wise communicate to the ball for it tends to put 
the loft of the face at a right angle to the initial 
line of flight of the ball, thus destroying any ob- 
liquity in the impact. Even Professor Tait recog- 
nized this important point although he did not 
see the application of it as against his arguments. 

Loft is not necessary for backspin. One could 
drive a ball with a club having a vertical face and 
obtain much backspin and a good carry, provided 
the tee were high enough to allow the cut down 
across the ball, and it would have to be a really 
high tee. 

Although the blow that produces backspin is a 
descending blow there is of course much more for- 
ward motion than downward at and about the mo- 
ment of impact so that all the ordinary principles 



278 THE NEW GOLF 

of the golf stroke are in the blow. The loft must 
get its chance to act as in any other stroke, but 
there must be no notion of leaving the loft to play 
the stroke for one unless one wants to be griev- 
ously disappointed. 

I must return for a moment to one of Profes- 
sor Thomson's statements that seems to me to be 
very interesting and to require some analysis: 
*'. . , but if you grasp the principle that the ac- 
tion between the club and the ball depends only on 
their relative motion, and that it is the same 
whether we have the ball fixed and move the club 
or have the club fixed and project the ball against 
it, the main features are very easily understood. ' ' 

I am now going to deal with what Professor 
Thomson meant to say. For this purpose let us 
take the case of an ordinary slice. We all know 
that a slice is produced by a glancing blow com- 
ing inwardly across the intended line of flight and 
Professor Thomson tells us that it is exactly the 
same whether we hit the ball with the club or fire 
the ball against the club. We must analyze this a 
little and see what results we get on paper before 
worrying about it any further. 

Let us consider that we have played a perfectly 
good slice and that we did it by coming across 
the line at an angle of 35 degrees. Let us bolt 
our club down on the line quite rigidly at a right 



THE NEW GOLF 279 

angle to it, as it was when we got our slice. Let 
us now fire our ball at the club down a Hne at 
an angle of 35 degrees to the face of the club. 

Now most of us know enough elementary me- 
chanics to know that in hitting a still object such 
as the face of a club, the ball will come off it at 
the same angle at which it hit it, that is to say 
that the angle of reflection will be the same as 
the angle of incidence, making a trifling allowance 
for the loft of the club. Here we have one object 
that is held absolutely still and all the motion is 
confined to the ball. 

Now we must consider the other proposition, 
the case in which the club strikes the ball. The 
ball flattens onto the face of the club to a consider- 
able extent and while it is thus in adhesion the 
two travel together for a short distance. This 
slice is being played, remember, in the same man- 
ner as the first stroke. While the ball and the 
club are adhering they travel together across the 
line from where the ball lay to the hole. In effect 
the club picks the ball up and carries it a little 
way inwards towards the player's side of the line 
of flight before the ball leaves the club. At the 
moment of impact there is no angular spread of the 
ball in any way. The same argument applies with 
possibly less force in the case of the ordinary drive 
where the point at issue is the ''spread," or angle. 



28o THE NEW GOLF 

of the ball after impact in a vertical plane instead 
of, as in the case we are considering, one that is 
almost horizontal. 

The analysis that I have given of Professor Sir 
J. J. Thomson's famous lecture will show that 
this subject of the dynamics of the golf ball is not 
so simple that it may be dealt with successfully 
unless one, in addition to some knowledge of 
physics, also understands thoroughly the produc- 
tion of the various golf strokes. 

In connection with the flight of the golf ball I 
am often asked to explain why the modern rubber- 
cored ball swerves so much more than the old 
gutta percha ball. This is supposed to be some- 
thing in the nature of a puzzle but I believe the 
answer is simple. The modern ball on account of 
its greater resilience stays longer on the face of 
the club, although Mr. W. J. Travis, in Practical 
Golf says otherwise. It therefore has more time 
to be affected by the oblique nature of the stroke, 
and thus almost certainly has more spin than the 
old guttie had at the moment of leaving the ball. 
Every one knows that the swerve comes in mainly 
at the end of the flight of the ball. As the spin 
gets to work at approximately the same distance 
as it did with the guttie and the ball, from that 
point to the end of its carry, has a longer distance 
to travel the spin has a greater time within which 



THE NEW GOLF 281 

to work its will on the ball. If we add to this 
Sir Ealph Payne-Gallwey's discovery about the 
defective center of gravity so prevalent in the 
modern ball and his experiments proving how it 
assists drift it is easy to see that there is quite 
enough to account for the apparently greater 
amount of swerve. In the main however it is a 
question of the longer carry giving the greater 
spin more time to act. 

Before closing this chapter I should like to sug- 
gest an experiment to any one who thinks that the 
beneficial backspin of golf is obtained by the loft 
of the driver as stated by Professor Thomson. 

Prepare a block of wood or get a wall or other 
place fixed up so that it has the same angle as 
the loft. Against this fire a ball with a catapult 
or other instrument until you have ascertained the 
angle of rebound caused by the loft. Then at a 
yard or so, according to the force of rebound fix 
another piece of wood. Draw a mark round a 
golf ball so that it is a circle cutting both poles of 
the ball. Place the ball in the machine so that the 
circle is in the plane of its flight. Mark the top 
pole with a blue dot. Color the wall you are firing 
against red, or some color that will mark the ball. 
Deal similarly, but in a different color with the 
board that is to catch the rebound of the ball. 
Fire many balls at the first board and compare 



282 THE NEW GOLF 

the distance on them between the mark left by the 
first board and that of the second. It seems to 
me that if this experiment were properly carried 
out one could accurately measure the amount of 
backspin produced by the loft alone in driving. It 
would be found to be very small. An arrow 
should be put on the circle round the ball showing 
the direction of the backspin, and care would have 
to be taken to fire the ball in such a manner that 
the arrow was correctly pointed. It seems to me 
that an absolutely correct measurement could be 
taken in this manner. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE MECHANICS OF GOLF 



The meclianical processes by which the various 
strokes in golf are produced have been herein- 
before described with considerable detail but there 
has been, and, indeed in some people's minds still 
is, so much doubt about some of them that it has 
been deemed advisable to show by diagram the 
exact action of the stroke. 

Let us start with what is probably the most 
discussed of all golf-strokes, the push. This 
stroke has been the cause of endless discussion 
and misrepresentation. It is not a stroke that is 
extremely easy to learn when one knows exactly 
what it is that one is trying to do. If one does not 
know exactly what to try for it is long odds 
against one 's ever learning it. 

The mechanics of this stroke are extremely sim- 
ple. Let us first take the push stroke with the 
cleek, for this is the club with which most people 
associate it. In figure 1 we see the cleek AB trav- 

283 



284 THE NEW GOLF 

eling in the downward line CD until it hits the ball 
at G. This is a point of the utmost importance. 
The club must hit the ball beneath the center of 
its mass and the face of the club must have loft on 
it, that is to say it must be tilted back as shown 
by AB. Possibly a less degree of loft might serve 



FIG. 1. PUSH STROKE WITH CLEEK. 

to produce the push but there must be loft. Even 
where the club has a good deal of loft and the 
player counteracts this by standing with his hands 
forward of the ball there is still a good deal of 
loft left on the club face at the moment it strikes 
the ball. 

There we see the club AB in contact with the 
ball. It is obvious that this stroke can raise the 
ball. Let us, on the other hand, look at a diagram 
of the impact in the push stroke as so often de- 
scribed by people who do not thoroughly under- 
stand it. We are often told that the club must 
hit the ball above the center of mass, in fact that it 



THE NEW GOLF 



285 



must have an overhang at the moment of impact 
as shown in figure 2. It requires no argument 
to convince any one with a rudimentary knowl- 
edge of mechanics that it would be impossible to 




PIG. 2. SHOWING OVERHANG AT IMPACT. 

get a cleanly hit ball by such a stroke. The result 
would be to drive the ball onto the ground at E 
and generally to ruin the stroke. 




'^i^^B^^M-ax 



FIG. 3. IF THE PUSH SHOT GOT ITS SPIN FROM THE 
EARTH AS IS SO OFTEN ASSERTED OVERSPIN INSTEAD 
OF BACKSPIN WOULD RESULT. 

It is frequently asserted in all seriousness that 
the pushed ball gets its spin from the earth as it is 
''pinched" or "pushed" out from between it and 
the club. Those who put forward this ridiculous 



286 THE NEW GOLF 

assertion quite overlook the fact that if this were 
indeed the way in which the spin of the push were 
produced instead of its carrying backspin, as ev- 
ery one knows that it does, it would have topspin. 
A brief glance at figure 3 will satisfy us of this. 
Here we see the cleek AB pushing the ball against 
the sward at E. The natural result of this would 
be that on the ball's leaving the ground it would 
have spin in the direction CD which is topspin, 
and of no use whatever in golf. 




'''^^''''i^'&'R1?^£0^^f^lSMlrK^'Mmnn«K,mKK:»KtSaJf- 



FIG. 4. PUSH OE WIND-CHEATEE WITH DEIVEE FBOM 
TEE. 

Exactly the same shot in all mechanical details 
as the push is played with the driver and brassy, 
but it is not then called a push. It has no settled 
name but it has for quite a long time been called 
a ''wind-cheater." It is not a very good name. 
In fact, it is scarcely better than the miscalledi 
push, but there is at present no definite name for 
it, so perhaps wind-cheater is as good as any 
other. In this stroke the club A travels down the 
line BC (Fig. 4). It hits the ball at F and pro- 



THE NEW GOLF 287 

duces the backspin DE. This diagram explains 
clearly how it is feasible to use a high tee for a low 
ball. The higher the tee within reason the greater 
the chance there is for the club to pass down across 
the ball in the line BC. It must be noted in all of 
these strokes that the ball is struck before the 
club gets to the lowest point in the swing, that it 
is struck below the center of mass and that the 
face of the club is inclined backwardly away from 
the ball. These are essentials in producing this 
class of shot. 



FIG. 5. HOW THE DELUSION ABOUT HITTING THE 
BALL ONTO THE EARTH IN THE PUSH SHOT AEOSE. 

The delusions about the push stroke being ob- 
tained by bouncing the ball off the earth and by 
using the divot wherewith to establish a grip be- 
tween the ball and the club are so persistent that 
they are worthy of some explanation. 

The diagram of figure 5 will perhaps show how 
this idea originated. The cleek AB strikes the 
ball a descending blow in the line CD at the point 
G. Now although the blow is a descending stroke 



288 THE NEW GOLF 

it is not descending very mucli. Notwithstand- 
ing this, however, immediately the ball is struck 
it proceeds to turn, or roll, upwards or in the di- 
rection EF on the face of the club. 

It stands to reason that this roll or turn tends 
to carry the ball upwards and away from the turf 
or earth, but during the period of contact or ad- 
hesion the club is sweeping rapidly forward in the 
line CD. Possibly some portion of the ball does 
brush or come into contact with the grass or earth, 
but the sole of the club is always lower than the 
lowest portion of the ball and it follows naturally 
that any influence of the earth or grass is utterly 
insufficient to have any effect in counteracting the 
tremendous force of the downward glancing blow 
that sets up the backspin. 

Frequently the sole of the club AB will engage 
the herbage as shown in figure 5 and sweep for- 
ward in the manner described by me until turf is 
actually taken at D. It will be seen from this ex- 
planation that unless one is very accurately in- 
formed as to what is taking place it would be easy 
to imagine that the ball is carried solidly onto the 
earth during the period of adhesion, but this, as 
we have already seen, is not the case. 

We have spoken of the influence of backspin on 
the flight of the ball. More and more each day 
do we find players recognizing the importance of 



THE NEW GOLF 289 

backspin in the game. It is almost impossible to 
exaggerate the importance of this spin in golf, yet, 
strange as it seems, there is a tendency to do so. 
It was in ''Modern Golf" in 1909 that I prophe- 
sied that the science of the modern game would be 
found in a mastery of backspin, but I never did 
say that backspin would be the whole of golf. It 
would be well to remember this, for if one goes to 
the extreme of making backspin an obsession some 













FIG. 6. SHOWING INFLUENCE OF BACKSPIN. AIE 
FBICTION IS GREATEST WHEEE MOTIONS OF PBOGBES- 
SION AND EEVOLUTION CONSPIBE AS SHOWN AT THE 
DABK POETION. 

of the other important points in the game will 
surely suffer. 

Now as regards the action of the air on the ball 
with backspin we may look at figure 6 and, taken 
in conjunction with the explanation hereinbefore 
given of the push, it will make quite clear to any 
one how the backspin acts. 

Here we see the ball going away in the direction 
CD. It is spinning from A to B which is back- 



290 THE NEW GOLF 

spin. At that portion of the ball where the shad- 
ing representing the air pressure is darkest the 
motions of progression and revolution ' ' conspire. ' ' 
Therefore on that portion of the ball forward of 
A and below the line CD the friction on the ball is 
greatest. Following the well-known rule that a 
projectile always seeks the line of least resistance, 
the ball tries to go upwards and this is what pro- 
duces the beautiful flight of the *' wind-cheater'* 
or ''push" class of strokes, which I shall show in 
figure 7 and briefly explain. 




A 

FIG. 7. SHOWING THE FLIGHT OF THE WIND-CHEiA.TEE 
OK PUSH. 

I am here showing how the air pressure causes 
the rising of the push stroke. It is obvious that 
the same rules govern the flight of the sliced and 
the pulled ball, but that in these cases the action is 
sideways instead of vertical. The result nat- 
urally is a swerve instead of a varied trajectory 
as in the case of the *'push" stroke. 

Here the ball Gr goes away with backspin AB. 
On account of the speed of the ball and the fact 
that the hands being in front of the club at the 
moment of impact the loft is decreased, the ball 



THE NEW GOLF 291 

keeps very low for a considerable part of its carry, 
the speed dominating the spin during that part of 
the carry marked CD. 

At or about D the effect of the backspin begins 
to make itself felt and the ball rises upwards to E. 
This follows naturally on account of the greater 
friction on the lower side, for the lower side is 
spinning towards the hole while the top side (if 
one may use the word of a sphere) is spinning 
away from it. 

By the time the ball has climbed up to the point 
E most of the backspin is exhausted and when 
finally it pitches at F, on account of the low tra- 
jectory, whatever of backspin is left is almost im- 
mediately killed and the ball runs well, particu- 
larly on a hard ground. 

It will be understood, of course, that I am re- 
ferring here mainly to the full stroke. In half 
shots the ball can be made to retain so much back- 
spin that it is of the utmost value in checking its 
run and in otherwise controlling it after it has 
pitched. This stroke is naturally of the utmost 
value in all approach shots. 

The pull is another stroke that has been the sub- 
ject of much controversy. For many years one 
was seriously informed that in playing the pull it 
was necessary to turn the hands over at the mo- 
ment of impact. This, of course, as already indi- 



2g2 



THE NEW GOLF 



cated, was merely foolish and was almost a sure 
means of foundering the ball. 

The mechanics of the stroke are well recognized 
now and are shown in figure 8. 



E 




FIG. 8. THE PULL. 

C is the line of flight and B is the ball. In mak- 
ing the stroke the club A travels from D out across 
the line to the hole, C, and in the curved line DE. 
It is this passing of the club A across the line to 
the hole C at the moment of impact, outwardly 




FIG. 9. APPROXIMATE PLANE OF THE SPIN OF THE 
PULLED BALL VIEWED FEOM THE TEE. THE SPIN IS 
FEOM A TO B. 

as shown by the line DE, and upwardly, that 
makes the pull, but there must be no attempt to 
turn the hands over. That, as is previously ex- 
plained, comes naturally in the follow through. 



THE NEW GOLF 



293 



Figure 9 elucidates another point that has 
caused much discussion. The line AB shows ap- 
proximately the plane of spin of the pulled ball. 
It is, if anything, a trifle too upright, that is to 
say, getting too near to topspin, which is useless. 
in golf. The modified topspin of the pull, if one 
may so describe it, goes probably nearer towards 
sidespin than is shown in the figure. 

It will be seen from this illustration how 
natural it is for the pull to fly low in the plane of 



^<- 



^^ 




FIG. 10. THE SLICE. 



its spin and to do its ducking sideways, also to run 
well on pitching for then the remaining topspin 
asserts itself at once. 

The slice has always been rather looked down 
on as a stroke ; in fact, as compared with the pull 
it is utterly despised. This is a wrong idea to en- 
tertain. The slice, in its place, is a beautiful and 
useful stroke. Very few people know that Harry 
Vardon habitually and intentionally slices. Any 



294 THE NEW GOLF 

stroke may be ruined by exaggeration. The pull 
is a beautiful and useful stroke. Some people 
rank it as the aristocrat of golf strokes, but it 
may develop into a vice, as indeed it did with one 
of the finest of American professionals. That, 
however, is by the way. We are considering the 
slice. If a man slices, a professional, who is con- 
sulted, will always try to cure him. He may in- 
deed try to make him pull to cure his slice. That 
is nearly as bad as trying to switch a man off wine 
onto whisky to cure him of drinking. 

If Vardon habitually uses the slice why should 
we try to cure the slicer? Rather should not the 
skilful teacher try to show the sufferer how to 
regulate his stroke so that he may get the benefit 
of the fine stroke he is ruining merely by exag- 
geration. 

Here is an important point for professionals 
and others. Eemember that the slice is not to be 
despised. Eemember that it is not a vice but a 
great and useful stroke, that the exaggeration of 
it is what is wrong. 

Vardon plays it so that it just curves a little 
at the end of its flight and does not run very far. 
He does it of design and he expressly advocates 
it, saying that he can get better control of the 
ball than if he hits it a straightforward blow, and 
this is a most important matter for the grip of the 



THE NEW GOLF 295 

ball has not been properly and fully emphasized 
in the past. 

Figure 10 shows us what grip of the hall means. 
E is the line to the hole. The club A cuts across 
the ball B in the curve CD and imparts spin from 
F to G. Now the whole secret of the success of 
the slice depends on getting the proper grip of the 
ball. If one comes across the ball too sharply it 
will result in an awful slice that swerves away off 
the course and is no good to any one; but if in- 
stead of cutting sharply across the ball one fol- 
lows through well and only comes slightly inwards 
and across the ball one will find that one has a 
fine, useful, and easily controlled stroke. 

This is a point of the first importance to many 
people, who are habitual slicers, who really have 
already the foundation of a very fine stroke, who 
are made to feel like criminals, instead of being 
taken gently by the hand and informed that they 
must not exaggerate Vardon's drive, but must 
endeavor to curb their cut and thus regulate their 
grip of the ball and so get onto a really good 
stroke with comparatively little trouble. Verily 
there is hope for the slicer in the hands of the 
man that knows the game and how to teach it. 

Figure 11 shows approximately the plane of 
spin of the slice. 

The axis of spin of the slice is generally laid 



296 THE NEW GOLF 

back a little as shown by the line AB which repre- 
sents the plane of spin of the sliced ball. From 
this it will be seen that the axis of spin of the 
slice is often more than vertical, that is to say, 




FIG. 11. APPBOXIMATE PLANE OF THE SPIN OF THE 
SLICED BALL VIEWED FEOM THE TEE. THE SPIN IS 
FEOM A TO B AND THE AXIS IS TIPPED BACK 
SLIGHTLY TOWARD THE PLAYEE. 

that it inclines backwardly to the player with the 
top pole nearer to the player than the hole. It 
is this characteristic that prevents the ball from 
running well. 

II 

J. H. Taylor's mashie shots are famous wher- 
ever golf is played but comparatively few play- 
ers know how Taylor gets his wonderful command. 
Even a distinguished player like Francis Ouimet, 
writing in an American golf magazine, described 
Taylor's stroke as being obtained by backspin. 
This is a mistake. Taylor gets his results by 
cut or cross spin. It gives him remarkable con- 
trol. A comparison of the following figures will 
show clearly how he gets his cut and the difference 
between his stroke and backspin. 



THE NEW GOLF 



297 



Figure 12 shows the masliie AB coming into 
contact with the ball at C as it crosses it from the 
outer side of the line of flight coming inwardly to 
the player. This cross-hit, commonly, in iron 




FIG. 12. SHOWING FIRST CONTACT BETWEEN MASHIE 
AND BALL IN J. H. TAYLOE'S FAMOUS STROKE. 



"cut" really belongs to the great 
It is a slice pure and simple, and 



clubs, called 

slice family. 

it is a remarkable thing that all the great players 

of the triumvirate get their most famous strokes 




PIG. 13. SHOWING TRAVEL OF BALL ON FACE OF 
MASHIE IN J. H. TAYLOR'S STROKE AND IN THE 
SLICE GENERALLY. 

from cut or glancing blows. There are Taylor's 
mashie stroke, Vardon's push and slice and 
Braid's pull but, bear in mind, none of them is 
exaggerated. 



298 THE NEW GOLF 

What we have seen of Taylor's stroke so far is 
only the impact. Instantly after this the ball 
slides or rolls upward and across the face of the 
mashie as shown in figure 13. 

The original point of impact was at A. The 
mashie is coming inwards and downwards and 
consequently the turn or roll of the ball on the 
face of the club is upwards and outwards from 
A to B. This produces the spin C D which we can 




FIG. 14. SHOWING HOW BALL MOUNTS THE FACE OF 
THE MASHIE IN J. H. TAYLOR'S STROKE AND SLIGHT 
CHANGE OF SPIN, WHICH BECOMES MORE UPRIGHT 
LATER. 

follow more clearly if we look at the side ele- 
vation of figure 13 given in the following figure 14. 

Here we see that the ball has mounted or 
rolled up the face of the club as it passes across 
it. The result is the spin CD which it will be seen 
approximates more to the vertical than that in 
figure 13. It in fact gets very near to a side spin. 

The result of this is that the ball swerves quite 
a little from left to right and Taylor therefore 
always pitches it to the left of the hole to allow 



THE NEW GOLF 299 

for this swerve and also for the curved run it has 
after it pitches on the green. 

Now it is beyond question, if we only had 
Taylor's wonderful work to go by, that this 
method of applying spin is most valuable, but it 
has the defects of its qualities, namely the swerve 
in the air and the curved run on the green. These 
eccentricities are not found in the approach with 
pure backspin shown in figure 15. 



0^:^^^ 








FIG. 15. SHOWING THE INFLUENCE OF BACKSPIN. 

Here the mashie AB has got well in under the 
ball and by reason of the descending blow has 
sent it away with a lot of backspin CD, and 
the ball is spinning in a vertical plane which is 
in the plane of the ball's flight. We see that the 
ball is forcing the air open, if we may so express 
it, at G. That which goes over the surface GI, 
the forward-spinning part, encounters more re- 



300 THE NEW GOLF 

sistance than the portion at GH which is the re- 
treating portion of the ball. The result is, that, 
following the general principles of swerve in the 
flight of the ball, the ball in this case is forced up- 
wards, but still in the same plane. The line of its 
flight to the hole is not altered because the plane of 
spin of the ball and the plane of flight coincide. 

The cut stroke, as played by J. H. Taylor, is 
easier to acquire than is the approach with pure 
backspin. Most people who allege that they are 
putting backspin on their approaches — and who 
does not to-day? — have not the remotest idea how 
to get backspin. They are merely cutting the 
ball. This is good in approach shots but it 
is not good unless one can regulate it. That is 
the secret of success in J. H. Taylor's wonderful 
approach shots — regulation. It is easy to get the 
stroke. It is not so easy to regulate it. 

The reason why backspin is so valuable is that 
one can play on the pin the whole time. In other 
words it is the straightest ball in the game. The 
nature of its production makes for straightness 
and the nature of the spin is such that it affects 
only the trajectory and not the direction. 

The grip of the ball. 

There is one subject that has never been thor- 
oughly treated in any golf book. I refer to the 



THE NEW GOLF 301 

grip of the ball. We have heard, ad nauseam, of 
the grip of the club, but nobody has ever told us 
of the grip of the hall, yet it is a matter of the first 
importance to one's game. 

A leading American professional was asked to 
state what he thought was the most important 
thing in golf. He replied in a most graphic 
phrase, ' ' The grip of the ball. ' ' 

This is a phrase that will live in the history 
of the game. The remarkable thing was, how- 
ever, that the professional immediately proceeded 
to show that he did not know what the words 
meant ; for he went on to explain that to get a good 
grip of the ball one must follow clean through 
after the ball, whereas the facts are the reverse 
of this. The secret of the grip of the ball in golf 
is not to follow straight through. It sounds al- 
most like bad golf, yet it most emphatically is not 
so, to say that one must be able to play across the 
ball if one wants to know to the full the secret and 
the satisfaction of the grip of the ball. 

In 1909 I set these things out fairly plainly but 
I am fain to confess now that I did not then realize 
how important in the true science of the game is 
a knowledge of the various strokes involving spin 
that I then fully explained. It is most curious, 
yet is the fact, that the most accurate and beauti- 
ful strokes in both tennis and golf are obtained 



302 THE NEW GOLF 

by playing across the ball, and not by a clean 
follow through. 

This, in such a game as golf, where the ball and 
the face of the club are both so small, is exceed- 
ingly remarkable but the fact remains. It is, in- 
deed, almost wonderful what a skilful player can 
do in golf by the application of spin when one con- 
siders the very small margin for travel that there 
is on the club. 

Let us consider the grip of the ball in the wind- 
cheater or push class of strokes. I have shown 
in figure 16 a driver with the lines on its face cut 
so that they are practically saw-edged and with 
the sharp edges pointing downward. This sys- 
tem of marking is an important factor in obtain- 
ing backspin, whether the club is of wood or iron, 
and the intelligent player will do well to study its 
effect in all of his clubs if he wants to improve 
his control. 

Figure 16, then, shows us the driver carrying 
the ball forward with it during the period of ad- 
hesion. The ball when first struck was at the 
point A. The club has gone forward and down- 
ward and it will hit the ground at or about the 
point B. It will be seen that the ball has 
''climbed," rolled, or turned up the face of the 
club, and is now so flattened and compressed 
onto it that the ''teeth" or marking of the club 



THE NEW GOLF 303 

are getting a very strong ''grip of the ball." It 
must be borne in mind that, in this pnsh stroke, 
in fact in the whole of the class, call them as one 
will, ''pushes," "wind-cheaters" or "searchers," 
the movement of the club, although downward, is 
much more pronouncedly forward than downward. 

THE GRIP OF THE BALL 




FIG. 16. SHOWING HOW THE DKIVEB TAKES HOLD OF 
THE BALL IN THE WIND-CHEATER. THE BALL HAS 
STARTED TO CLIMB THE FACE OF THE CLUB. NOTICE 
THE TEETH ON THE CLUB. THESE ARE MOST USE- 
FUL IN OBTAINING BACKSPIN. 



This is a point that is not fully considered. It 
is indeed remarkable, considering how little room 
there is for the club to pass the golf ball down- 
ward, how much can be done by backspin and its 
immediate relation, the ordinary cut. 

Some people have found that the marking I 
have shown, especially on fully lofted wooden 
clubs, has improved their game very much. The 
principle is undeniably sound for all clubs, wood 
or iron, where much spin is wanted. It is only 



304 THE NEW GOLF 

a matter of the degree of marking that must be 
scientifically adjusted. 

The huge pimples or excrescences that disfigure 
some of the mashies and niblicks associated with 
the names of famous golfers are merely a joke to 
any one who is acquainted with the history of the 
movement that did away with the pimple or 
bramble marking of the golf ball, the most un- 




B. — ^POINT OF IMPACT, 

FIG. 17. SHOWING HOW THE CLUB GRIPS THE BALL 
IN THE SLICE; AND ALSO THE TRAVEL OF THE BALL 
ON THE FACE OP THE CLUB. GREATER CONTROL IS 
GOT BY THE SLICE MARKING SHOWN IN THE DIA- 
GRAM. 

scientific thing that was ever inflicted on any class 
of sportsmen. In all delicate shots these ridicu- 
lous lumps on a club are worse than useless. They 
are positively dangerous. 

In figure 17 we see the grip of the ball in the 
slice. The teeth again emphasize the importance 
of this matter of grip. The ball is shown flat- 



THE NEW GOLF 305 

tened onto the face of the club that is moving 
across the line of flight, inwardly towards the 
player, during the period of adhesion. 

The first impact was at B but it is apparent that 
the ball has rolled or turned on the club. It is 
this roll or turn, during adhesion, that produces 
the spin which has so marked an effect on the 
flight and run of the ball. This is not difificult to 
get, particularly in the slice, if one knows exactly 




C. — POINT OF FIRST IMPACT. 

FIG. 18. SHOWING THE GRIP OF THE BALL IN THE 
PULL; ALSO THE TEA\^L OE ROLL FROM TOE TO HEEL 
(APPROXIMATELY FROM A TO B.) 

what it is that one is trying to do. Groping in 
the darkness of ignorance for this little *' travel" 
or roll of about an inch and a half is, however, 
quite another thing. 

Now in figure 18 we are shown the grip of the 
ball in the pull. In this case the first contact of 
the ball and club was somewhere about C. The 
club in this case was swinging out in a glancing 



3o6 



THE NEW GOLF 



blow from B towards A. It follows naturally that 
the path of the ball on the face of the club will be 
inward towards the player and as the path of the 
club head is upward as well as outward the travel 
of the ball on the face of the club will be down- 
ward as well as inward. This is very clearly 
shown in figure 19, which is, so far as I am aware, 
a mechanical presentation of the pull that has 
never before been given. It is not to scale, but, 




FIG. 19. SHOWING PATH OF PULLED BALL ON THE 
FACE OF THE CLUB. 

for that reason it shows, if anything more clearly 
than if it were, the mechanics of this much dis- 
cussed stroke. 

While we are looking at the travel AB of the 
ball on the club face in the pull, which produces 
the plane of spin DC, we may conveniently notice 
at the same time the all-important axis of spin 
EF which naturally runs at right angles to the 
plane of spin CD. 

It is this slight tilt from E to F in the axis of 



THE NEW GOLF 307 

spin of the pulled ball that accounts for its run- 
ning qualities. Were this axis vertical or, as in 
the case of the slice, slightly tilted back, its effect, 
on the ball's pitching would be to retard the run 
of the ball instead of, as in the pull, assisting it 
because, as already explained the plane of spin 
and the plane of the hall's flight, owing to its 
doing its ducking sideways, practically coincide. 
Figure 20 shows very clearly the mechanical 



is- 




FIG. 20. THE POSITION OF THE FEET FOE THE PULL. 

details of the stroke in the pull. Notice particu- 
larly here the position of the feet relative to the 
ball, as this has a most important bearing on the 
stroke. 

In the pull it will be seen, as we have explained 
at length elsewhere, that directly the club leaves 
the ball it goes away inward from the line of 
flight in the direction shown by the curve CE. In 
coming back to the ball it will be seen that during 



3o8 THE NEW GOLF 

impact the club head swings out across the line 
to the hole GH in the curve EOF. 

The position of the feet and the clear under- 
standing of these simple mechanical details will 
do more to make one master of the pull than any- 
stupid notions about turning the hands or wrists 
over at the moment of impact. This turn does 
take place, but it comes in naturally and not by 
any conscious effort long after the ball has left the 
club. 

In figure 21 we find the position of the feet in the 
slice and the mechanical details of the stroke. 
This position of the feet is the key, generally 
speaking, to the stance for all ''cut" shots. The 



.-^ 



,.^.-:: 



c =~ 

£^~ " & 

FIG. 21. THE POSITION OF THE FEET FOB THE SLICE. 

greater the cut the more open the stance is the 
general rule. In fact, so important in cut strokes, 
is the stance that one can almost regulate the 
amount of cut by the degree of openness of the 
stance and without making any demand on the 



THE NEW GOLF 309 

arms for gaging the angle at wliich the club must 
cross the ball. Indeed, it is well that one should 
so accustom oneself to regulate the stroke, al- 
though it is always hard to prevent a little arm, or 
as it is generally mis-called, ''wrist" work, creep- 
ing in. The different stances are shown in fig- 
ure 22. 

Many players have a great liking for shallow 
clubs. They are always dangerous. Figure 23 
should do much to prevent any one developing too 

^ I .^. L 

StenCG for- pv//. S^ctsnG stance Open stence 

JRi'^hf foot beck. Toes pensf/ef Z>eft foot beck 

with &ne to /tc/fe - . 

, > 

i^lne to /10/e 
FIG. 22. THE STANCES. 

great an affection for these dangerous and unre- 
liable assistants. In this figure we see the ever- 
present danger of the shallow-faced club getting in 
beneath the ball, especially if it happens to be 
' * sitting up " on the herbage. 

It is a common idea that a shallow-faced club 
will get a ball up from a bare patch or a fast fair- 
way, where the ball is lying snug, better than a club 
with a deeper face. If it is merely a question of 
loft, that will act in the same manner in either club. 
What the ordinary golfer never realizes is that 



310 THE NEW GOLF 

with the shallow-faced club what is happening half 
the time is what is shown in figure 23, namely that 
the ball over-laps the top of the club. This natur- 
ally makes the ball rise more quickly for the main 
force of the blow is directed so low, but the same 
effect may be obtained in a more scientific and re- 
liable manner by a specially balanced but deeper- 




PIG. 23. SHOWING THE DANGER OF THE SHALLOW- 
FACED CLtTB. 

faced club. Shallow-faced clubs are always a dan- 
gerous assistant in the hands of even the most 
skilled, and even in the strokes where the margin 
of error is the greatest in golf, as witness the most 
remarkable case of Vardon and the shallow-faced 
Brown- Vardon putter, that simply ruined his put- 
ting while he persisted in using it. 

I have never heard it laid down, but it probably 
would be absolutely sound as an axiom in club 
making if we were to say: ''Let it be granted 
that no club shall be made with a depth of face 
at the point of impact of less than the diameter of 
the ball." 



THE NEW GOLF 311 

THE PASSING OF THE CLEEK 

Dealing with this important question of club 
construction, I said in 1909 {Modern Golf, page 
13) : "It is a mistake in the driver or brassie to 
have the face too shallow. The tendency with 
such a club is always to lift the ball, and this, of 
course, means sacrificing distance. This remark 
applies generally to shallow-faced clubs. The 
reason is simple, and may best be shown by illus- 
tration, as in Fig. 5 (the same as Figure 23 in this 
chapter). Here the brassie has cut into the grass, 
which is separating the ball from the earth. It 
therefore gets a little below the ball. This, added 
to the shallowness of the face, causes the ball, on 
impact, to bend over the top of the club, as shown 
at the point C. This is very marked in shallow- 
faced irons and in playing off the heel of the 
mashie. The greater portion of the force is ap- 
plied in the line shown by the arrow in Fig. 5 (that 
is beneath the center of mass, as shown in Fig. 23 
of this chapter). There is a considerable amount 
of inertia at the top of the ball as there is no 
direct power behind it. The tendency, therefore, 
is naturally for it to rise instead of to fly, as it 
would do were the face of the driver of proper 
height. 
It is a mistake to imagine, as some writers as- 



312 THE NEW GOLF 

sert, that the shallow face will give more "under- 
spin," as they call it. ynderspin is practically a 
misnomer for any spin that a driver can communi- 
cate to the ball. Back-spin is a more correct term, 
for any spin of this nature is obtained, not by hit- 
ting under the ball, but by hitting it behind, as 
the club is descending. 

I think players are much inclined to err on the 
side of lightness with their iron clubs. We are so 
addicted to doing exactly what others do that we 
seldom make any experiment to see if we could 
improve on the existing clubs. A short time ago 
I had a cleek of a new pattern made for experi- 
mental purposes. The moment I looked at it I 
knew it was useless for a cleek. The lie was 
wrong. It was practically an "iron driver," not 
a driving iron ; but even as that it was useless, for 
it was socket-heavy, and there was no metal in the 
head. I told the maker to solder another ounce of 
iron behind the point of impact, to carve the face 
into squares by lines, and to cover it with a film 
of solder. I then used the club as a driver, and 
found that it drove almost as well as a driver. 
We are too much afraid of an ounce of metal. ' ' 

This quotation is of historic importance, for it 
adumbrated the passing of the cleek and the com- 
ing of the iron-faced driver introduced by Ted 
Eay. 



THE NEW GOLF 313 

' ' Cleek " is a word nearly as holy as * ' Golf. ' ' It 
sounds almost like blasphemy to say it but the 
cleek is moribund. I write now plainly of ''The 
passing of the cleek," for it is doomed. Deal- 
ers in America cannot now sell them. Soon the 
shallow-faced club will be dead here and later in 
other lands. It is a dangerous and difficult club. 

Any one familiar with the construction of 
Eay's iron-faced driver with its central bolt of 
iron behind the point of impact will recognize in 
it exactly the principle of my ''iron-driver" which 
really was quite a remarkable club. 

The cleek will die "harder" across the water 
than in America, but it is doomed. There is noth- 
ing that it can do that cannot be better done by 
a deeper-faced club. 



AFTERWORD 

And now, those who have followed me so far, 
will see that ''The New Golf" is not so much "new 
golf" as it is old golf newly interpreted. It is 
in effect, golf as it has been played since golf was 
golf, but shorn of the cobwebs of tradition with 
which the game has been festooned by writers, even 
as though they were linked in a gigantic conspi- 
racy to put mystery and confusion where sim- 
plicity and clarity should be. 

Something more there is, it is true, in ' ' The New 
Golf" than this. There are some modern de- 
velopments of the game, there is one new stroke, 
there is the trend of the modern game clearly to 
be seen, there is, mayhap, some fresh thought, but 
in the main, ''The New Golf" is just the grand, 
simple old game, taught in a sane and lucid man- 
ner, so that any one who turns to it for assistance 
may get it, and not be bewildered, as so often hap- 
pens when one turns for help to a book on golf. 



314 



INDEX 



Accuracy, mechanical, supreme 
demand of golf, 169 

Accuracy, reasons for its neces- 
sity, 169 

Address, the frontal, 13 

Address, 98 

Adhesion, 165 

Arm roll, 125 

Arms in upward swing, 123 

"As you go up, so you come 
down," 18 

Backspin, 154 

Badminton Magazine, The, 259, 
260 

Balls, defective center of grav- 
ity in, 246 

Ball, impression of, on club, 
166 

Ball, John, grip of, 9 

Ball, John, 220 

Ball, Vaile, 241 

Ball-shy golfers, 2 

Ball, the golf, 232 

Baltusrol, 37, 38 

Baseball curves, Professor 
Thomson on, 270 

Blindfold driving, 193 

Billiard cue, 223 

Braid, James, ball to be 
"swept," 21 

Braid, James, on follow 
through, 26 

Braid, James, grip of, 7 



Braid, James, and Vaile putter, 
35, 36 



Center of gravity defective in 

balls, 246 
Centrifugal force, 101 
Cleek, the, 91 
Clubs, illegal golf, 225 
Club, the golf, 223 
Club, grip of, 6 
Club, grip of, in America, 7 
Clubs, mallet-headed, 226 
Club, soling the, 6 
Concentration necessary, 85 
Consciousness, self, 100 
Cricket bat, 223 
Cross wind, effect of, 248 
Cut and slice similar, 149 

Daily HI ail, The, 71 
Demand of golf mechanical ac- 
curacy, 169 
Divots not necessary, 82 
Double swerve, 245, 253 
Downward swing, start of the, 

16, 127 
Drag in putting, 42 
Drift of rifle bullet, 271 
Drive an exaggerated put, 5 
Driving, 97 
Drive, duration of impact in 

the, 21 
Duncan, George, grip of, 7 



315 



3i6 



INDEX 



Duncan, George, 56 

Duncan, George, and form of 

mashie, 68 
Duncan's hip action, 133 

Elbow, right, 126 
Eyes, the, 191 

Field, The, 254 
Flight, low, of push, 155 
Flight of the golf ball, 258 
Follow through, the, 25 
Follow through, James Braid's 

views, 26 
Follow through, Vardon on, 

135 et. seq. 
Foot, the left, 106 
Foot work, 27 
Foot work, excessive, 28 
Foot work, proper, 99 

Golf clubs, form and make of, 
228 

Golf Magazine, The, 39 

Golf, right way to learn, 1 

Golf stroke a hit, 20 

Golf stroke a hit, except per- 
haps put, 22 

Golf stroke, prevalent miscon- 
ceptions about, 14 

Golf stroke, speed of, 134 

Golfer, The Complete, 44 

Gravity, defective center of 
ball's, 246 

Grip, interlocking, 6 

Grip, the Vardon, 6 

Grip must be maintained 
throughout stroke, 124 

Head, the, 138 
Head must be kept still, 191 
Head, fault of rigid, amongst 
American players, 195 



Head, Vardon on lifting the, 

194 
Heel, left, in drive, 27 
Heel twisting, 99 
Hilton, H. H., grip of, 9 
Hip action, Vardon's, 107 
Hip action, and right leg, 132 
Hockey stick, 224 
How to Play Golf, by Braid, 46 
Hutchinson, Horace, on power 

of left, 213 
Hutchinson, Horace, on weight 

at top of swing, 116 

Idea, clear, necessary for suc- 
cess of stroke, 63 

Impact, Braid on, 136 

Impact, duration of, in drive, 
21 

Impact in cut put, Vardon on, 
65 

Impact in golf stroke, Travis, 
W. J., on duration of, 280 

Impact, James Braid's views 
on, 23 

Impact, James Braid on, 24 

Impact, regulation of stroke 
during, 22 

Impact, statement about Var- 
don and pull, 24 

Impact, the, 135 

Impact, Vardon on, 135 

Iron, the, 83 

Iron shot, Vardon on the, 85 

Iron swing, Vardon on gravity 
in, 87 



La-crosse, 223 

Lament of Left Hand, 215 
Left arm and hand, power of, 
29 



INDEX 



317 



Left arm, Braid, Taylor and 

Vardon on power of, 30 
Left foot, 106 
Left knee bends towards ball, 

108 
Left hand's lament, 215 
Left leg, weight mainly on, at 

top of swing, 20 
Leg, the left, 110 
Left, the power of the, 204 
Left, Horace Hutchinson on 

power of, 213 
Leg, the right. 111 
Light, dispersion of, 272 
Loft, slight, on putter desirable, 

41 
Loin work, Vardon's, 107 

Mallet resolution, 225 
Mallet-headed clubs, 226 
Mashie, the, 67 
Mashie, cut shots with, 68 
Mashie, cut shots and Taylor, 

148 
Mashie, form of, and Duncan, 

68 
Mashie, soft metal for face of, 

69 
Mid Surrey, 36 

Newton, on swerve, 168 
Newton, 265, 272 
Nga Motu Golf Club, 230 
Niblick, the, 142 
Nobel Prize, 261 

Oldenburg, 272 
Ouimet, Mr., 39 
Overlapping grip, 6 
Overlapping grip, new, 8 

Payne-Gallwey, Sir Ralph, 
243 



Pivoting on toe, 99 

Power of the left arm and 
hand, 29 

Practise, secret of putting, 49 

Press forward, the, 18 

Pressure, varying, in grip, 
Braid on, 208 

Projectile Throwing Engines of 
the Ancients, The, 244 

Pull and George Duncan, 179 

Pull, Braid's idea of impact in, 
186 

Pull, controversy over, 178 

Pull, reverse, 174 

Pull, run of, 189 

Pull, spin in, and rim of, 187 

Pull, stance and address for, 
177 

Pull, Taylor on, 148 

Pull, the, 176 

Pull, the spin of the, and top- 
spin, 184 

Pull, turn over of wrist in, 185 

Push shot, 150 

Put a pure wrist stroke, Var- 
don, 63 

Put, the best, 59 

Put, the ideal, 33 

Puts, complicated, 59 

Puts, hitting, 56 

Putter, the Vaile, 36 

Putters, loft on, 40 

Putters, shallow-faced, 35 

Putting, 32 

Putting, backspin in, 40 

Putting, Braid on improving 
one's, 52 

Putting, individuality in, 50 

Putting, James Braid's, 35, 36, 
37 

Putting, position of eyes in, 35, 
57 

Putting, position of feet in, 58 



3i8 



INDEX 



Putting, use only center of club, 

60 
Putting, Var don's, 37 
Putting, Vardon on, 62 
Putting, Vardon on low follow 

through, 64 
Putting, variety of style in, 34 
Putting with cut, 65 
Putting with top, 43 

Ray, Edward, and "The Ruff" 
ball, 250 

Rifle bullet, drift of, 271 

Right hand easing grip in 
swing, 8 

Right leg and hip action, 132 

Roll of the arms, 125 

Royal and Ancient Golf Club 
of St. Andrews, 225 

Royal Institute of Great Brit- 
ain, 235 

Rubber- cored ball, swerve of, 
280 

"Ruff, The," ball, 250 

Schenectady putter, 224 
Sherlock and weight at top of 

swing, 93 
Sherlock, James, and weight on 

machine, 121 
Sherlock, James, on "mystery" 

of golf, 51 
Short swing, 198 
Slice and cut similar, 149 
Slice, characteristics of, 174 
Slice, run of, 173 
Slice, stance for, 165 
Slice, Taylor on, 148 
Slice, the, 164 
Slicing, how to cure it, 170 
Slow back, 15 
Smooth ball and Professor 

Thomson, 236 



Smooth ball, reasons for er- 
ratic flight of, 236 

Soling, correct, 12 

Soling, faulty, 11 

Speed of golf stroke, 134 

Spin and pace, 172 

Stance and address, 98 

Stance, open, 98 

Stance, square, 98 

Standard, The Evening, 216, 
233, 235 

Style, 5 

Stymie mashie and smooth 
face, 68 

Stymie stroke, essentials of 
new, 70 

Stymie stroke, new, and George 
Duncan, 70 

Sweep, golf stroke not a, 20 

Swerve, double, 245, 253 

Swerve of slice, 168 

Swerve or the Flight of the 
Ball, 265 

Swing, tension at top of, 210 

Swing, the short, 198 

Swing, top of, 17, 20 

Swinging back, 17 

Tait, Freddie, 259 

Tait, Professor, 259 

Taylor, J. H., grip of, 7 

Taylor on putting, 46 et. seq. 

Tee, high, for low ball, 155 

Tennis racket, 223 

Tension at top of stroke, 131 

Tension at top of swing, 210 

The master stroke, 147 

Thomson, Professor Sir J. J., 
235, 260 

Thomson, Professor, on top- 
spin, 268 

Top in putting, 43 

Topspin in tennis, 184, 268 



INDEX 



319 



Topspin useless in golf, 188 
Travers, Jerome D., and new 

stymie stroke, 75 
Travis, W. J., on impact, 23 
Truth, 215 

Vaile ball, 241 

Vaile putter, 225 

Vardon and the master stroke, 

150 
Vardon, argument how he plays 

pull, 24 
Vardon grip, defect of, 8 
Vardon's hip action, 132 
Vardon on cut put, 65 
Vardon on put being a pure 

wrist stroke, 63 

Waggle, the, 102 
Waggle, Duncan's, 104 
Walton-on-Heath, 36 
Weighing machine test of 
weight at top of swing, 92 



Weight across left foot in 

swing, 108 
Weight at top of the swing, 

20, 112 
Weight, distribution of, 19 
Weight, excess of, on left, 20 
Weight in drive goes forward, 

120 
Weight mainly on left leg, 20 
Weight on left in cleek shot, 

92 
West End School of Golf and 

weight demonstration, 121 
Wind, cross, effect of, 248 
Wrist action, 125 
Wrists, 30 

Wrists in stroke. Braid on, 130 
Wrists in stroke, Vardon on, 

130 
Wrists, Taylor on, 211 
Wrists underneath shaft at top 

of stroke, 125 
Wrists, where they come in, 129 









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